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HISTORY J21^ 



EARLY SETTLEMENT 



JUNIATA VALLEY: 



EMBRACING AN 



AND THE TRIALS AND PRIVATIONS INCIDENT TO THE 
SETTLEMENT OF THE VALLEY, 



PREDATORY INCURSIONS, MASSACRES, AND ABDUCTIONS BY 

THE INDIANS DURING THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS, 

AND THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION, &c. 



By U. J. JONES. 



HARRISBURG, PA.: 

HARRISBURG PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

1889. 



F'/ST 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1889, by 

THE HARRISBURG PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

In the Ofi&ce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 







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J^Jtuation 



TO 



MAJOR B. F. BELL, 

BELL'S MILLS, BLAIR COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Dear Sir: — I hope your well-known modesty will not be 
shocked when your eyes encounter this notice. In dedicating 
to you the fruits of my first historical labors in the field of litera- 
ture, allow me to say that I am governed by reasons that will 
justify me. In the first place, I may cite your well-known and 
often-expressed veneration and esteem for the memory of the 
brave old Pioneers of our Valley, their heroic deeds, and their 
indomitable energy and perseverance, under the most discourag- 
ing circumstances, in turning the unbroken wilderness into " a 
land flowing with milk and honey." Secondly, you are the son 
of one of those self-same old pioneers, (now in his grave,) who, if 
not a direct actor in some of the scenes portrayed in the pages 
following, lived while they were enacted, and trod upon the 
ground where many of them occurred, while the actors in them 
were his friends and his neighbors. Manifold, indeed, were the 
changes he witnessed during a long and useful career ; but the 
common lot of humanity was his, and he now " sleeps the sleep 
that knows no waking," where once the lordly savage roamed, 
and made the dim old woods echo with his whoop, many, many 
years ago. 

Lastly, it was through your encouragement that I undertook 



b DEDICATION. 

the task ; and it was through your kind and Hberal spirit that I 
was enabled to make it any thing more than an unpublished his- 
tory, unless I chose to let others reap the benefit of my labors. 
These things, sir, you may look upon as private, but I cannot re- 
frain from giving them publicity, since I acknowledge that your 
liberality has entailed upon me a deeper debt of gratitude than 
I can repay by merely dedicating my work to you. 

Allow me, therefore, to dedicate to you, as a small token of my 
esteem for you, the " History of the Early Settlement of the 
Juniata Valley." If there is any thing in it to interest the pres- 
ent generation and enlighten posterity, I am willing to divide 
the honor and glory of its paternity with you, for I am neither 
afraid nor ashamed to confess that, although I wrote the history, 
it was through your generosity that I was enabled to publish the 
book. 

A careful perusal of the work will, no doubt, convince you 
that I have labored studiously to make it interesting, not only 
to the resident of the Valley, but to the general reader, who 
must admit that, if I have failed, it has not been for lack of the 
best exertions on my part. 

In conclusion, should the book prove a failure, and not come 
up to the expectations of my friends, you can console yourself 
with the reflection that you made a mistake by inciting the 
wrong man to an undertaking for which he was unqualified. A 
pleasant reflection ! I have said, that, as you were the originator 
of the book, you should share all the honor that might arise from 
it. I will be more magnanimous still; if the History proves a 
mere catchpenny swindle, let the odium and execrations of a 
humbugged public fall upon 

THE AUTHOR. 

Hollidaysburg, Pa., Nov. 1855. 



PREFACE. 



j-^^HE design, object, and aim of the following pages can 
^1 . be summed up without any circumlocution. Some 
♦^ ten or twelve years ago, a large volume of "Historical 
Collections of Pennsylvania" was published by Sherman 
Day, which gave a brief history, among others, of the coun- 
ties composing the Valley of the Juniata. This work was 
followed by a compilation, by I. D. Rupp, Esq., entitled " A 
History of Northumberland, Huntingdon, Mifflin, Centre, 
Union, Clinton, Juniata, and Columbia counties." The last, 
as far as our valley was concerned, was almost a reprint of 
the first, with some few additions gleaned from the Colonial 
Records and the Archives of the State. Both these works 
were most liberally subscribed for; in fact, the compilation 
of the counties had upwards of a thoiisand subscribers in 
Huntingdon county (Blair not then formed) alone ! The 
inducements held out, in order to gain such an extensive 
list, were, that the works would be graphic histories of the 
early settlement of this country. In this they signally, 
failed. True, here and there they gave an account of some 
early occurrence ; but they were exceedingly brief, lacked 
detail, and in many instances were found grossly inaccurate. 
Of course, they gave universal dissatisfaction, because the 
subscribers looked for a faithful record of the stirring events 
which occurred when this portion of the land of Penn was 



8 . PREFACE. 

"the dark and bloody ground." The descendants of many 
who figured in the trials incident to the settlement of the 
valley are still living. The fireside recitals of these events 
made them " as familiar as household words" among those 
who are now fast passing away ; but they search all histories 
in vain to find a faithful account of more than a moiety of 
the struggles, trials, and personal adventures of the pioneers, 
as well as the many cold-blooded Indian massacres and 
depredations which spread desolation through the land, and 
laid waste the homes and firesides of so many who located in 
what was then a wilderness. Let me not be understood as 
attempting to deny the merits of the works of which I have 
spoken. As modern histories, giving accounts, or rather de- 
scriptions, of the country as it was at the time they were 
issued, they were faithful records. Indeed, I will do Mr. 
Rupp the justice to say that I consider his compilation all 
it professes to be, according to his preface, in which he says : 
" A full and minute history of these counties can only be 
expected after a greater accumulation of historical facts is 
extant for that purpose." 

The facts necessary to give a minute history of the early 
settlement of the Juniata have been accessible, although it 
must be admitted that those who could give them from 
reliable personal recollections have nearly all passed into 
" the valley and the shadow of death." 

Some ten or twelve years ago, Judge M'Cune, Judge 
Adams, Michael Maguire, and Edward Bell, Esq., met at 
the residence of the latter gentleman, in Antes township, 
Blair county, by invitation. These were all old settlers, 
whose memories dated back to the struggle of the infant 
colonies for freedom ; and most vividly did they recollect 
the Indian butcheries when brave Old England paid a 



PREFACE. y 

stipulated price for rebel scalps. The reunion of these vet- 
erans was an epoch in their lives, for they had been children 
together, had travelled the same rugged path, and, with 
stalwart frames, sinewy arms, and willing hearts, had earned 
for themselves names, reputation, and earthly competence. 
Well may we conjecture that, in fighting the battle of life 
over again in story, some interesting incidents were related. 
During this reunion, a history of the early settlement of the 
upper end of the valley was written, and the manuscript 
transmitted to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in 
the expectation that it would be published in some of their 
works. This, however, never was done ; and when applica- 
tion was made to the society for a return of the manuscript, 
it was either lost or mislaid. 

Since then, one by one, these old patriots have passed 
from time to eternity, and the woods and valleys that knew 
them for three-quarters of a century shall know them no 
more. With them would, in all probability, have been 
buried many important facts, had not the author of these 
pages called upon the last survivor, Michael Maguire, in 
October last, and taken down, at length, all his early recol- 
lections. The time was most opportune, for he was even 
then upon his deathbed. The sands of a long life were 
evidently ebbing fast, and he knew it, for he gave it as his 
solemn conviction that the proposed recital of the past was 
the last he should ever make to mortal man. Although 
enfeebled by age, and his body wasting away, his intellect 
was vigorous and unclouded, and his memory fresh as it was 
fourscore years ago. Indeed, I soon found that he had the 
most retentive memory of any man I ever knew, because, 
in narrating incidents, he gave days, dates, and names, with 
such ease as almost to stagger belief. Of course, to him I 



10 PREFACE. 

am mainly indebted for the material of that part of the 
History treating of the upper end hi the valley, especially 
the occurrences between 1776 and 1782. Mr. M. died on the 
17th inst. 

From a manuscript memoir of E. Bell, Esq., I have also 
been enabled to glean some useful information. He com- 
menced it a short time before his death, and it is to be deeply 
regretted that a violent attack of rheumatism in the hand 
compelled him to abandon the work after writing some six 
or eight pages. 

I am also indebted to a number of persons for information 
that has been of value to me, whose names will be mentioned 
in another place in the work. 

If this volume fails to meet the expectations of those kind 
friends who have interested themselves in my behalf, it will 
not be for lack of zeal or perseverance on my part. I am 
free to confess that the language of the book is not clothed 
in that attractive garb which makes books popular in the 
age we live in ; but then it must be remembered that I am 
not, worthy reader, submitting to your judgment a romance, 
but a History, based upon immutable and undying Truths. 

U. J. Jones. 

HOLLIDAYSBURG, NoV. 1855. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Aborigines of the Valley — Their Habits and Customs, . 17 

CHAPTER 11. 
History of Early Settlers, 37 

CHAPTER III. 

Juniata Island — An Indian Paradise — Rev. David Brainerd 
— The Early Settlers, Hulings, Watts, and Baskins — In- 
dian Battles — Remarkable Escape of Mrs. Hulings, ... 52 

CHAPTER IV. 

Indian Towns along the Juniata — Lost Creek Valley dis- 
covered — Mexico first settled by Capt. James Patterson, 
in 1751 — Indian Attack upon Settlers at the House of Wil- 
liam White — Massacre of White — Capture of John Riddle 
— His Release from Captivity, etc., 63 

CHAPTER V. 

Early Settlers at Licking Creek — Relics of an Indian Battle 
— House of Robert Campbell attacked — James Campbell 
wounded and taken prisoner — Scout sent from Shearman's 
Creek — Encounter with the Indians at Buffalo Creek — 
Five of the Scout killed, etc., 70 



12 * CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Tuscarora Valley — Its Early Settlement — Its Mounds and 
its Forts, Massacres, etc., 76 

CHAPTER VII. 

Fort Granville — Old Indian Town — Early Settlers — Captain 
Jacobs — Assault and Capture of the Fort, etc., 82 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Organization of Mifflin County — Dispute with Huntingdon 
County about the Boundary Line — Riot at Lewistown, 
etc., 88 

CHAPTER IX. 

Kishicoquillas Valley — The Shawnee Chief Kishicokelas — 
The Mingo Chief Logan, 102 

CHAPTER X. 

Colonel John Armstrong's Expedition against Kittaning — 
List of the Killed and Wounded — Delaware Chiefs, Cap- 
tain Jacobs and Shingas, etc., 112 

CHAPTER XL 

Old Indian Town — Indian Paths — Aughwick — Murder of 
John Armstrong and Party — Captain Jack, the Wild 
Hunter of the Juniata — George Crogan, etc., 123 

CHAPTER XII. 

Raystown Branch — Early Settlement of Raystown — General 
Forbes's Expedition — Colonels Washington and Boquet — 
Colonel Armstrong's Letter — Smith and his "Black 
Boys" — Bloody Run — Robbery — Indian Massacres — Rev- 
olutionary Lieutenants of Bedford County, etc., .... 148 



CONTENTS. 13 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Raystown Branch, continued — Murder of Sanders and his 
Family — Englishman and his Wife taken Prisoners — 
Felix Skelly and Mrs. Elder taken Captives — Their Re- 
turn, etc., 160 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Standing Stone, ancient and modern — Murder of Felix Don- 
nelly and his son Francis, etc., 167 

CHAPTER XV. 

Trials of the Early Settlers — Their Forts and other Means of 
Defence, etc., 177 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Early Settlers— Old Hart, the Indian Trader, .... 183 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Continental Mills of the Valley, 189 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Cove — Early Settlement by Dunkards — Indian Massa- 
cres and Captivities — Massacre of Ullery and Hammond — 
A Resistant Dunkard, etc., 192 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Tommy Coleman, the Indian-Fighter — Surprise of the Dunk- 
ard Murderers, etc., 201 

CHAPTER XX. 

Sinking Valley — The Lead Mines — Fort Roberdeau — Indian 
Murder and Heroic conduct of a Woman — Encounter with 
a Savage — Massacre of Roller and Bebault, etc., .... 211 



14 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Tories of the Valley — Their Unfortunate Expedition to Join 
the Indians at Kittaning — Captain John Weston, the Tory- 
Leader — Captain Thomas Blair — Capture of the Broth- 
ers Hicks — Hanging a Tory — Narrow Escape of two of 
Weston's men, etc., 232 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The Tory Hare — Murder of Loudenslager — Abduction and 
Murder of Mrs, Eaton and Children — Treatment of Hare 
by the Settlers, etc., 240 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Moses Donaldson — Capture and Murder of his Wife and two 
Children, 247 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Depredatations at the Mouth of Spruce Creek — Murder of 
Levi Hicks — Scalping of his Child, 253 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Stone Valley — McCormick's Fort — Murder of Mrs. Houston 
and James McClees — A Dealer in Grain in the Olden 
Time, • 257 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Tuckahoe — Murder of John Guilliford, 261 

CHAPTER XXVIL 

Early Settlement of Scotch Valley— The Moore Family- 
Massacre of William Moore — Indian shot by a Boy, etc., 263 

CHA.PTER XXVIII. 

Woodcock Valley— Massacre of Elder— The Breckenridge 
Family— Fight with, and Destruction of. Captain Phil- 
lips's Scout by the Indians — Cruel Massacre of ten Men, 268 



CONTENTS. 15 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Water Street — The Beatty Family — Captain Simonton — 
Massacre of the Dean Family — Captivity of John Simon- 
ton, etc., . . 278 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Hollidaysburg — The Holliday Family — Death of Lieuten- 
ant Holliday at the Battle of Brandy wine — Massacre of a 
portion of William Holliday 's Family — John Holliday, 
etc.,. 287 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Old Indian Town of Frankstown — Indian Burial-Places — 
Massacre of the Bedford Scout, etc., 298 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Shaver's Creek — Mysterious Death of old Shaver — Heroic 
Conduct of two Children — Abduction of Miss Ewing and 
Miss McCormick — Peter Crum, the last Victim of the 
Savages, etc., 313 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Warrior Ridge — Warrior's Mark — Job Chillaway, Shaney 
John, and Captain Logan, the last Red Men in the Juniata 
Valley, 323 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Conclusion, 329 

The Valley as it is, 332 

APPENDIX. 

The Author of the History of the Juniata Valley, .... 353 

The Pattersons of Juniata, 356 

Indian Massacres in 1763, 369 



16 CONTENTS. 

Narrative of Robert Robinson, 375 

The Murder of Jack Armstrong, 384 

Armstrong's Resting Place, 386 

Jack's Narrows, 388 

Indian Massacre at Shaver's Creek, 393 

Simon Girty the Outlaw, 396 

Marcus Hulings of Duncan's Island, 401 

The Thompsons of Juniata Valley, 407 

Forts in the Juniata Valley, 411 



EARLY SETTLEMENT 



OF THE 



JUN^IATA VALLEY 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ABORIGINES OF THE VALLEY — THEIR HABITS AND THEIR CUS- 
TOMS. 



4. 4 



[HEN the persevering and adventurous Anglo Saxon 
first entered the wilds of the Juniata, his eye, as far 
as it could reach, beheld nothing but a dense forest; 
but his quick penetration observed its natural beauties, its 
advantages, and the fertility ^f its soil. Hence he did not 
long stand upon the crest of the Tuscarora Mountain, debat- 
ing the advantages to be derived from making it his home, 
or the risk he was taking upon himself in doing so, but 
plunged boldly down into the valley and called it his own. 
He found it peopled with dusky warriors and their families, 
who received him with open arms; and the golden hues of 
hope for the future lightened his cares, and made his priva- 
tions no longer a burden. On the banks of the beautiful 
river the majestic stag trod, a very monarch ; and the pellu- 
cid stream, from the bubbling brooks that formed it, to its 
mouth, was filled with the noble salmon and sportive trout, 
with little to molest them; for the Indians did not possess 
2 17 



18 HISTORY OF THE JUXIATA VALLEY. 

the penchant for indiscriminate slaughter of game which 
characterized their successors. They held that the land was 
given to human beings by the good Manitou for a dwelling- 
place, and not for the purpose of being broken up and cul- 
tivated for game. The fish and game were also a free gift 
from the same spirit, for the support of his people. Hence 
hunting and fishing for more than what would supply im- 
mediate and absolute wants were held in supreme contempt 
by the red man. 

The Indians found in the valley, when the whites first 
invaded it, belonged to three or four tribes — the Delawares, 
Monseys, Shawnees, and probably the Tuscaroras; all of 
whom, with the exception of the latter, belonged to one of 
the eight great Indian confederations scattered over the 
land, from the Rocky Mountains to what they called, in their 
figurative language, the rising of the sun. These Indians 
called themselves the Lenni Lenape, or "original people," of 
which the Delawares and Monseys were by far the most 
numerous of the tribes settled in the valley. The Shawnees, 
a restless, lawless, and ferocious band, were threatened with 
extermination by a powerful foe in Florida, when they came 
to Pennsylvania and craved the protection of the Lenapes, 
which was granted to them, and they were permitted to 
settle upon the lands of the Delawares. The Delaware In- 
dians soon discovered that the Shawnees were quarrelsome 
and treacherous neighbors, and their company not desirable. 
Notice was given them to quit, and they settled upon the 
flats of the Susquehanna, near Wilkesbarre, and from thence 
they found their way to the Juniata; and there is little doubt 
but that tliey were first and foremost in the depredations 
committed during the French and Indian wars, as well as 
during the American Revolution. The Tuscaroras did not 
claim to belong to the Lenape tribes, yet a large portion of 
them lived in their territory. They came from the South, 
and joined the Aquanuschioni, or "united people," known in 
history as the Six Nations. As they did not speak the lan- 
guage of either the "united people" or the "original people," 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 19 

it would appear that they were people on their own account, 
enjoying a sort of roving commission to hunt the lands and 
fish the streams of any of "their cousins," as they styled all 
other tribes. 

The Conoy Indians settled in the valley in 1748. They 
left the Delaware on the strength of a promise made them 
by the proprietary government that they should be remu- 
nerated.. The debt, however, we presume, must have been 
repudiated, for we find that an Indian orator named Arrueh- 
quay, of the Six Nations, made application to Governor 
Hamilton, during a "talk" in Philadelphia on the 1st of 
July, 1749, for something for them. The governor, quite as 
much of an adept at wheedling the savages as the proprietors 
themselves, returned the Conoy wampum, and "talked" the 
Seneca orator out of the belief that they owed the Conoys a 
single farthing, in consequence of their having left their 
land and settled among the nations of the Juniata of their 
own free will and accord. He ruled out the Conoy claim, 
and confirmed his opinion by sending them a string of gov- 
ernment wampum. Whether this satisfied the Conoys or 
not does not appear upon the record. We think not — at 
least we should not suppose that they were half as well sat- 
isfied as the Six Nation deputies, who carried away, among 
other plunder, a quantity of tobacco and pipes, fifty ruffled 
shirts, and a gross and a half of brass jewsharps! 

The Nanti cokes settled about the mouth of the Juniata in 
1748 or 1749, and in after years spread westward toward the 
Ohio. This portion of the tribe, when it first came to the 
Juniata, was not very formidable ; but it increased and be- 
came powerful. 

A number of Mengues, Mingoes, or Iroquois, of the Six 
Nations, settled a few years afterward in Kishacoquillas 
Valley, now Mifflin county. 

Of all the savages in the valley, the Mingoes were proba- 
bly the most peaceably disposed, although it is a well-attested 
fact that they were a brave and warlike band. The fathers 
of the principal chiefs of the Mingoes, settled in the Juniata 



20 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Valley, had been partially (if we may use the term) Christ- 
ianized by the teachings of the Moravian missionaries, 
Heckwelder, Zinzendorf, and Loskiel ; and this may account 
for their desire to live on terms of amity and friendship 
with their pale-faced brethren. 

As the Delawares, or Lenapes, claimed to be the original 
people, we must come to the conclusion that they came to- 
ward the east before the Iroquois. They probably came 
from a northern direction, while the united people worked 
their way from the northwest to the northeast. To call these 
men original people, in the sense in which they applied it, 
may have been right enough ; but to apply the term to them 
of original, as occupants of the country, is a misnomer, not 
only according to their own oral traditions, but according 
to the most indubitable evidence of antiquarians and geol- 
ogists. 

The traditions of the Lenapes were, in effect, that their 
ancestors were a mighty band of fierce warriors, who came 
from the setting of the sun, part of the way by canoes, and 
the balance of the way over land, — through dense forests, 
beautiful valleys, over lofty mountains. In their triumphant 
march they met but one foe, whom they trampled under 
their feet as the buffalo does the grass under his hoofs, and 
that this weak and effeminate foe was entirely exterminated. 

These traditions, vague as they are, and as all oral tradi- 
tions forever must be, have certainly a foundation in fact. 
Drake, whose Indian history is regarded as the most reliable, 
gives it as his opinion, formed only after all the facts could . 
be collected and all the traditions fully digested, that the 
Indians originally came from Asia, by way of Beh ring's 
Straits. 

The patient investigations made bj' antiquarians have 
long since settled the fact, to the entire satisfaction of most 
people, that a race did exist in this country prior to the ad- 
vent and on the arrival of the Indians. The relics of this 
race, consisting of vases, pipes, earthenware, etc., found dur- 
ing the last century, indicate not only a race entirely differ- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 21 

ent from the Indians, but one much farther advanced in 
civilization. The Indians, however, it would appear, eitlier 
scorned their handicraft, or never took time to examine 
thoroughly the habits of these people before they extermi- 
nated them in order to possess their country. These relics 
bear a marked resemblance to those dug from ruins in Egypt, 
,as well as those found in Peru. In fact, the vases, and some 
of the earthenware, bear such a strong resemblance to the 
Peruvian antiquities, that it is the settled conviction of some 
that the earlier settlers of both North and South America 
were identical, and that the original stock was a tribe of 
Egyptians. 

Some writers have asserted that these early inhabitants 
were non-resistants. This is most unquestionably an error. 
The traditions of the Indians say that their ancestors fought 
many battles before they conquered the country; but that 
they ahvays were victorious. Of course, this might be mere 
vain boasting by the Indians of their ancestors' prowess and 
skill in war, and such we would look upon it, if their oral 
history was not strengthened by the fact that, on the banks 
of the Miama, Muskingum, Kanawha, and Ohio Rivers, 
ancient fortifications, or at least well-defined traces of them, 
have been found. Nor is this all; tolerably well-executed 
implements, evidently intended for warlike purposes, have 
been taken from mounds, as well as many unmistakable 
stone arrow heads. 

Whether this anterior race existed to any considerable ex- 
tent along the Juniata we are not prepared to say ; but that 
some of them once lived here is more than probable, although 
antiquarians have failed to extend their researches to the 
valley. Among the evidences to induce the belief that these 
ancients once occupied our land, we shall refer to the most 
prominent, leaving the reader to make his own deductions. 

When the excavation for the Pennsylvania Canal was 
going on, a laborer dug up, near Newport, a stone shaped 
like a Greek Cross. The formation of the stone bore un- 
mistakable evidence that it was not a mere freak of nature. 



22 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 

This attracted attention, and the stone was thoroughly- 
cleansed, when the transverse was found to contain hiero- 
glyphics, plainly marked with some sharp pointed instru- 
ment. Persons who saw it supposed that the French might 
have given it to the Indians, and that they used it for a 
purpose similar to that for which the Standing Stone was 
used, and that they brought it from Canada to the Juniata. 
This supposition was based upon the formation of the stone ; 
but, strange to say, the hieroglyphics bore no resemblance to 
any thing pertaining to the modern Indians. It may, there- 
fore, have belonged to the anterior race, and the person 
who shaped it may have been utterly ignorant of the fact 
that it was the symbol of the Christian religion. The cross 
was sent to Philadelphia to be submitted to the inspection 
of the savans of the Historical Society, but was lost on the 
way ; at all events, it never reached its intended destination. 

Speaking on the subject of antiquities with a physician 
some years ago, — probably tJie late Dr. Coffey, — he informed 
us that a skeleton was dug up near Franktown, which he 
did not believe belonged to any of the tribes of Indians 
whose mounds are scattered so profusely along the Juniata. 
He arrived at this conclusion from numerous personal ob- 
servations he made. In the first place, the body retained a 
portion of dried withered flesh, and portion of papyrus or 
bark-cloth enveloped the body, so that it must have under- 
gone some species of embalming before sepulture. Em- 
balming was unknown to the Indians. Secondly, the body 
was in a horizontal position, north and south, whereas the 
Indians always buried in a sitting posture, with the face to 
the east. And, finally, the body was buried alone, while the 
Indian method was to have one common grave for all who 
died for years. Some articles were found when the skeleton 
was exhumed; but they were so much corroded as to be use- 
less even for scientific investigation. 

In breaking up a piece of new ground in Kishacoquillas 
Valley some twenty -five, or probably tliirty, years ago, traces 
of a well-defined wall were discovered, which was traced and 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 23 

found to enclose about an acre of ground. Although the 
stones that formed this wall were the ordinary stones found 
along the stream, fashioned and shaped by the great Architect 
of the world himself, it is certain that human hands placed 
them in the position in which they were found. The whole 
thing was destroyed before any mention was made of it. 

In addition to these evidences, we have heard of arrow- 
heads and pottery being dug up in other sections of the val- 
ley; but, taking it for granted that they were all Indian 
relics, no effort was ever made to have a thorough investiga- 
tion of their origin. 

How long this continent was occupied by the Indians 
found here on the arrival of the Northmen is a mooted 
point, on which no two historians can agree. The Indian 
method of computing time by moons is rather vague to base 
a calculation upon. Those who contend that they originated 
from one of the lost tribes of Israel, endeavor to prove that 
they have been here for many centuries; while others, bas- 
ing their calculations upon the usual increase of the human 
family, think that the numbers found here on the discovery 
of the continent would indicate that they had been here but 
three or four centuries. This we think a reasonable conclu- 
sion, for it is an undisputed fact that the Indians, previous 
to the advent of the whites, multiplied quite as rapidly as 
their civilized brethren ; while the tender care and solicitude 
they evinced for children and aged people induces the belief 
that the deaths among them were not in proportion as one 
to six to the births. 

We now come to the religious belief of the savages found 
in .Juniata Valle3^ The general impression of persons who 
have not read Indian history is that they were idolaters. 
Such, however, is not the fact. They worshipped no "graven 
image." Their belief was based upon a supreme good and 
an evil 3Ianitou or spirit, and their subordinates, — the former 
of which they worshipped, while the anger of the latter was 
appeased by proj^iitiatory offerings or sacrifices. It is true 
they had images, in the form of a head carved out of wood, 



24 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

which represented the good Manitou, and which they wore 
around their necks as a tahsman against disease and to in- 
sure success in great undertakings ; but even Loskiel, who 
spent a long time among them as a missionary, makes no 
mention of their worshipping their inanimate gods. Their 
worship generally consisted of sacrificial feasts, sometimes by 
the entire tribe, and at other times by single families. In 
the fall they invariblj^ had a sort of general harvest-home 
gathering, when bear's-meat and venison were served up, — 
the universal custom being to eat all prepared. When pro- 
visions were scarce, such an arrangement was no doubt sat- 
isfactory ; but we can well imagine that when there was an 
undue proportion of meats to guests the custom must have 
proved exceedingly irksome. After the meal, the monoton- 
ous drum and the calabash with pebbles were brought out, 
and those who had not gorged themselves to repletion joined 
in the dance. One of the chiefs usually chanted a hymn, 
or rather song, of irregular measure, in praise of the Manitous, 
and extolling the heroic deeds of the ancestors of the tribes. 
A second religious performance consisted of a sacred dance, 
in which the men alone appeared, in almost a state of nudity, 
with their bodies covered with pipe-clay. This was probably 
a dance of humble contrition. A third feast, or religious 
observance, consisted of some ten or a dozen of the oldest 
men and women of a tribe enveloping themselves in deer- 
skins, standing with their faces to the east, and petitioning 
the good Manitou to bless all their benefactors. There were 
other religious rites and sacrifices, which can be of little 
general interest to the reader, such as a sacrificial feast in 
honor of fire, another to propitiate the Manitou before going 
to war, &c. We shall, therefore, conclude this part of the 
subject by giving the story of an old trader who traded 
through the valley in 1750. Of course we did not get it di- 
rect from his own lips, for he has been dead and in his grave 
for many years; but, even if we did get it second-hand it is 
nevertheless true. 

Some time in the spring of 1750, the old trader, whose 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 25 

name has now escaped our memory, received a pressing 
invitation to visit Standing Stone a day or two before the 
first full moon in September, as a grand feast was to come 
off at that time, which would be attended by six or eight 
tribes. The trader, forseeing the chance of brisk barter, 
brought a large quantity of goods from Lancaster, on pack- 
horses, and arrived a day or two before the sports commenced. 
He found preparations made for a large company ; and he 
accordingly pitched his tent on the hill, while the wigwams 
of the Indians stood upon the flat near the mouth of Stone 
Creek. On the day on which the feast was to commence, 
the trader was awakened at an early hour by the loud whoops 
of the savages already arriving to take part in the cere- 
monies. The day wore on; and when the sun reached the 
zenith a thousand warriors and their squaws, in their best 
attire, had gathered upon the greensward. At the hour of 
twelve o'clock precisely, a chief, whom the trader supposed 
to be at least a hundred years of age, arose from the ground, 
while all the rest retained a cross-legged, sitting posture. 
The trader understood enough of the Delaware language to 
ascertain that the feast was one which took place every hun- 
dred moons, to render thanks to the Manitou for preserving 
them a great people. After congratulating the different 
tribes, and welcoming them to this friendly reunion, an im- 
mense pipe was brought into the arena, which passed from 
mouth to mouth, each man taking but a single whiff. Of 
course the women formed the outer circle, and took no fur- 
ther part in the proceedings than merely looking on. Two 
half-grown lads followed the big pipe with a small bag of 
Kinnikinique, and ever and anon replenished the bowl. 
This consumed an hour, during which time there was pro- 
found silence. The old sachem then arose, and said the 
balance of the day would be given up to festivities. The 
assemblage broke up into small parties, and as each tribe 
had their medicine-men, musicians, and prophets along, the 
turn tum of the drum and the wild chant were soon heard, 
and the dusky sons and daughters of the forest went into 



26 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

the dance of the gay and light-hearted with a thousand 
times more vigor than the beau and belle of the modern 
ball-room. 

Many of the Indians called upon the trader, and were 
anxious to barter for "lum;^' but, notwithstanding that he 
had five kegs of rum, and the most friendly feeling existed 
between himself and the tribes, he refused to deal. In fact, 
he was a prudent man, and did not consider it altogether 
safe. The festivities of the da}'^ and part of the night were 
kept up with dancing, singing, and howling. The next day, 
religious exercises followed ; and on the third a very solemn 
and impressive ceremony was to take place, to wind. up the 
meeting, at which the trader was urgently invited to be 
present, and in an evil moment gave his consent to do so. 
Accordingly he sold all of his barrels or kegs of rum, packed 
up the balance of his goods, and started his pack-horse train 
to Aughwick, himself and horse alone remaining behind. 

At the appointed time in the evening for the feast, a large 
fire of dry wood was built, and the savages commenced 
dancing around it, howling and throwing their bodies into 
the most violent contortions, first stepping three or four feet 
forward, with the body inclined in the same direction; then 
throwing the body backward, moved on, keeping time with 
the drum and the chant. As one party got tired, or probably 
roasted out, they danced away, and another set took their 
places. M^hen the fire burnt fiercest, and the lurid flame lit 
the surrounding hills, a wild chorus was sung in unison that 
might have been heard for miles. This, the trader was told, 
was the loud hymn of adoration. He did not dispute the as- 
sertion. The rum he had sold the Indians began to work, and 
the old fox was enjoying some funny scenes not set down in the 
bills of the day. Occasionally a chief, under the wild influ- 
ence of iho fire-ivatcr, would make a misstep and tramp upon 
the burning coals. To see him quitting in a hurry afforded 
the trader an infinite deal of amusement. At length the pile 
was reduced to coals, when an Indian brought ibrth from 
a wigwam a live dog, and threw him upon the burning em- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 27 

bers. Another and another followed, until ten dogs were 
thrown upon the fire. Of course they tried to escape, but 
the Indians hemmed them in so completely that this was a 
matter of impossibility. They set up a dreadful howl, but 
the Indians drowned the canine noise by another stave of 
their loud chorus. The odor of the roasting dogs did not 
sit well upon the trader's stomach, and, bidding adieu to his 
immediate acquaintances, he expressed a determination to 
leave for Aughwick. This his friends would not permit, and 
insisted most vehemently that he should see the end of it. 
As he had seen considerable fun, he thought he might wait 
and see it out, as the carcasses of the dogs would soon be 
consumed. In this, however, he was mistaken, for the 
medicine-men drew them from the fire, placed them upon 
w^ooden platters, and cut them into pieces. Five or six of 
them carried them around among the auditory, offering to 
each chief a piece, who not only took it, but eagerly ate it. 
The conclusion of this feast we give in the trader's own 
words : — 

"At last t^ey came where I was sitting, among the only sober 
chiefs in the party. The stench of the half-roasted dogs was 
awful. One of them came with his trencher to me, and offered 
me a piece, — a choice piece, too, as I was an invited guest, being 
a piece of the most unclean part of the entrails. 'Thank'ee,' 
said I ; ' never dine on dog.' But this did not satisfy them. 
One of the prophets, laboring under the effects of about a quart 
of my rum, insisted on me eating what was offered me. I again 
declined, when one of the chiefs informed me that it was a very 
sacred feast, and unless I partook of my allotted portion I would 
highly insult the Indians, and some of those intoxicated might 
deprive me of my scalp. The thing was no longer a joke, and 
I seized the piece of dog entrail and put it in my mouth, in 
hopes of spitting it out; but they watched me so close that by 
one mighty effort I managed to swallow it. I did not wait to 
see the end of the feast; I had my portion and thought I might 
as well retire. I started in the direction of Aughwick, and every 
half mile the nauseous dog served every purpose of a powerful 
emetic. I was a much sicker man next day than if I had drank 



28 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

a gallon of my own rum ; and, in all my dealings with the red 
men, I took particular care never again to be present at any dog 
feast !" 

Of the social and general character of the savages we 
have many contradictions. Heckwelder, the old Moravian 
Missionary, whose innate goodness found 

" Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and God in every thing," 

intimated that some of their social habits, such as their 
tender solicitude for infants and the great deference and 
respect they paid to the aged, were noble traits in their 
character. Loskiel says that "in common life and con- 
versation, the Indians observe great decency. They usually 
treated one another, and strangers, with kindness and civility, 
and without empty compliments. In the converse of both 
sexes, the greatest decency and propriety were observed. 
They were sociable and friendly. Difference of rank, with 
all its consequences, was not to be found among the Indians. 
They were equally noble and free. The only difference 
consisted in wealth, age, dexterity, courage, and office." 

Their hospitality to strangers knew no bounds. In some 
instances it was carried to extremes. An Indian who would 
not hospitably entertain a stranger under his roof, and attend 
to all his wants as far as lay within his power, was held in 
supreme contempt by all his acquaintances. Indeed, the 
offence was deemed so grievous, that the offender was not 
only detested and abhorred by all, but liable to revenge from 
the person to whom the common and acknowleged rights of 
hospitality were denied. 

Lying, cheating, and stealing, as well as adultery and 
fornication, were deemed scandalous offences, and were pun- 
ished. They did not exist to an}^ great extent until the 
parent of them — drunkenness — was introduced by the white 
man. 

To these commendable traits in a savage people there were 
sad offsets. The savage was cruel and exceedingl}^ blood- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 29 

thirsty. He never forgave a premeditated injur}' ; and if no 
opportunity offered to avenge himself, he enjoined upon his 
descendants, "even to the third and fourth generation," to 
revenge him. A hatred once formed against an enemy 
could only be quenched with his blood. He would treasure 
up a wrong for years, and it would rankle in his heart until 
he got his enemy into his power, when flaying, roasting, or 
killing by inches, was not too cruel a death to mete out to 
him. Nay, more than this, — in their wars, neither age, sex, 
nor condition, were taken into consideration ; and the proud 
warrior who sang the great and heroic deeds of his ancestors 
for a thousand moons was not too proud to carry in his belt 
the scalp of an innocent babe ! But then the savage was 
untutored, and it unquestionably was a part of religion to 
put to death an enemy by the most cruel torture; neither 
did he expect any other treatment if he fell into the hands 
of a foe. 

In ordinary* life, there undoubtedly was some honor in 
the Indian, but in war no trait of it was perceptible in his 
composition. To slay an enemy while asleep, or destroy 
him by any strategem, was a feat to boast of, and claimed 
quite as much glory as if it had been accomplished by the 
prowess of arms. To shoot an enemj^ from ambuscade, or 
lure him to destruction by treachery that would be branded 
as most infamous among civilized nations, were looked upon 
as exceedingly cunning by the Indians. 

As a general thing, they professed to abhor war among 
themselves, and only declared it when aggravating circum- 
stances absolutely demanded ; — that thf* question was delib- 
erately debated by the tribe, and if, after mature delibera- 
tion, a majority of the chiefs and captains favored a war, 
speedy preparation was made for it ; a red hatchet or club 
was sent to the offending tribe, or one of them was caught, 
scalped, and a war-club, painted red, laid by his side. Hos- 
tilities were then commenced, and the war waged with the 
greatest fury until one or the other party succumbed. 

Now it happens that 'professions do^not always accord with 



30 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

practice, and in this case we are quite sure they did not. 
The whole tenor and bearing of the savages must lead us to 
believe that there was no avenue open to the aspiring Indian 
to attain honor and distinction, except through feats of arms 
and daring: and it is only too true that he shared the com- 
mon weakness of humanity in loving the "pride, pomp, and 
circumstance of glorious warfare." The proof of this is 
that some of their most bloody conflicts were caused by the 
most trivial circumstances. 

That they had many fierce and sanguinary struggles 
among themselves is well authenticated. A battle almost 
of extermination was once fought between two tribes at Ju- 
niata, — now^ known as Duncan's Island, — within the memory 
of many Indians who were living when the whites settled 
among them. This island must have been a famous battle- 
ground — a very Waterloo, — in its day. When the canal was 
in progress of construction, hundreds of skeletons were ex- 
humed; and to this day stone arrow-heads can be found 
upon almost any part of the island. 

The Indian traditions also chronicle a fierce battle between 
two tribes near Millerstown ; another in Tuscarora, and 
another at Standing Stone. The truth on which these tradi- 
tions are based is made evident by the fact that at those 
places, for years, Indian war-relics have been found. 

There ex'isted for years the most intense and bitter feuds 
between the Six Nations and the Lenape Indians, commonly 
called the Delawares. How long the feud existed, or how 
many bloody conflicts they had to gain the ascendency, can- 
not now, either by tradition or record, be made reliable his- 
tory. From the best information we can gather, it is highly 
probable that these confederations had buried the hatchet a 
short time previous to the landing of Penn. And we may 
also readily assume that the final declaration of peace was 
sued for by the Delawares; for the Iroquois always boasted 
that they had reduced them to the condition of ivomen by 
their superior bravery and skill in war. This the Delawares 
denied, and declared that " by treaty and voluntary consent 



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HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 33 

they had agreed to act as mediators and peacemakers among 
the other great nations ; and to this end they had consented 
to lay aside entirely the implements of war, and to hold and 
to keep bright the chain of peace. This, among individual 
tribes, was the usual province of women. The Delawares, 
therefore, alleged that they were figuratively termed women 
on this account." This cunningly-devised story the Dela- 
wares palmed upon the missionary Heckwelder while he la- 
bored among them, and he was disposed to give them great 
credit. The Iroquois, having formed an early alliance with 
the Dutch on the Hudson, received fire-arms, and by the 
liberal use of them soon brought refractory tribes out of 
their confederation to terms, and reduced others to vassalage, 
and exacted from them an annual tribute or an acknowl- 
edgement of fealty, permitting them, on such conditions, to 
occupy certain hunting-grounds ; and there must, therefore, 
have been at least some truth in the allegation of the Iro- 
quois that the Delawares were " conquered by their arms, 
and were compelled to this humiliating concession as the 
only means of averting impending destruction." It is said, 
however, that the Delawares were finally enabled to throw 
off this galling yoke, through the influence of Zeedyusung, 
a powerful chief, who extorted from the Iroquois an acknowl- 
edgment of their independence at a treaty held at Tioga in 
1756. 

"The humiliation of tributary nations was, however, tem- 
pered with a parental regard for their interests in all negotia- 
tions with the whites ; and care was taken that no trespasses 
should be committed on their rights, and that they should be 
justly dealt with." 

So says the record ; and yet we find that the sachems of 
the Six Nations, who had evidently learned from the whites 
both the use and abuse of money, in July, 1754, at Albany, 
sold all the lands in the State, not previously purchased, 
" lying southwest of a line beginning one mile above the 
mouth of Penn's Creek, and running northwest-by-west to 
8 



34 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

the western boundary of the State." This sold the land from 
under the feet of the Delawares, Shawnees, and Monseys, 
of the Juniata Valley, notwithstanding the Six Nations had 
guaranteed it to them forever as a sacred hunting-ground. 
This act of treachery on the part of the Iroquois, and the 
insatiate appetite of the proprietors to add broad acres to 
their extensive domain, caused many of these homeless 
tribes to go over tp the French, and, as a writer truly adds, 
" the blood of Braddock's soldiers was added to the price of 
the land." 

But to return to the original settlement of the valley. 
The Indians unquestionably received the white adventurers 
with open arms, and extended to them such a hearty wel- 
come as must have banished all fears for the future. The 
savages looked upon the death-dealing rifle with supersti- 
tious awe; and the saw, the axe, the plane, and other imple- 
ments of handicraft in the possession of the whites, made 
them a high order of beings, endowed with peculiar gifts by 
the Great Spirit, in the eyes of the Indians, and their per- 
sons were regarded as sacred. They shared with them their 
rude huts, and left nothing undone within their power to 
render them comfortable. 

And for this noble and magnanimous conduct on the part 
of the Indian, what return did the white man make? Such 
a one only, we regret to say, as makes no bright page in their 
history. They were taught all the vices of civilization, but 
to teach them its virtues was deemed a work of supereroga- 
tion. The ignorant Indian and his primitive habits were 
treated with disdain, and he was deemed a fit subject for 
robbery wherever opportunity offered — this more especially 
by the lawless, who considered themselves out of the reach 
of the government and its officers. A gradual encroach- 
ment upon the Indian's sacred hunting-grounds, and the re- 
fusal of the white man to look upon him as any thing but a 
degraded being or to associate with him on an equality, soon 
taught the Indian that he had taken into fellowship the 
crafty white man only to enable him to suck out his exist- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 60 

ence by his superior skill and his subtle cunning. The keen 
penetration of the savage soon discovered the position he 
occupied by the side of his white brother. Smarting under 
the indignities offered, and foreseeing the degradation to 
which he would be subjected in time, the red man and the 
white man did^not long dwell together in unity. While the 
latter commenced tilling the land and surrounding himself 
with the comforts of civilization, the former fled before him 
to the mountains and valleys where he was monarch of the 
land, — where the council-fire could blaze, the green-corn 
dance and song be heard, and the calumet of peace be 
smoked without the presence of the white man. 

Yet, with all the encroachments upon their rights by the 
settlers, the Indians exercised great forebearance. They 
knew the warlike appliances in the power of the proprietary 
government ; hence they repeatedly declared their wish to 
"keep bright the claim of friendship ;" — in less figurative 
language, they did not want to go to war. No depredations 
were committed upon the whites, of any consequence, before 
the French tampered with them and the Six Nations per- 
fidiously sold the land they had given "their cousins" as a 
sacred hunting-ground. Nor even then, although the ag- 
gravation was great, did all the Indians leave the valley 
to join the French. Many who were friendly toward the 
proprietary government remained until war broke out be- 
tween the colonies and Great Britain ; and some few peace- 
ably-disposed fragments of tribes even lingered in the valley 
until the close of the Revolutionary war. 

During the French and Indian war, and at its close, many 
of the Indians returned, and lived for some years in the 
valle}' unmolested. But in 1761-62 the footprints of the 
white man were seen in their paths, and civilization began 
to crowd them. The white adventurers crowded so thick 
upon them, that, after the war of 1764, the greater portion 
of them left ; nor did they return again until 1777, when 
they appeared as allies to the British crown, to massacre and 
scalp the unprotected frontiermen. To stimulate them to 



36 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

I 

this inhuman warfare, the British not only impressed it 
upon them that they were redressing grievances, but they 
actually paid them a stipulated price for every scalp, of 
child as well as adult, brought to the Canadian frontier. 

The Indians who figured in the predatory incursions from 
1776 to 1781 were probably Delawares, Monseys, Nanticokes, 
Shawnees, and Tuscaroras ; but they were then only known 
as Delawares, all other titles having been merged into that 
of the most powerful tribe. That these tribes were the ones 
who committed most of the depredations, we judge from the 
fact that the elder chiefs and captains emigrated to the 
Canadian frontier from the Juniata Valley, and consequently 
knew every foot of the valley, from the base of the Alleghany 
Mountains to the very mouth of the river. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 37 



CHAPTER II. 

HISTORY OF THE EARLY SETTLERS, 

k. 

(T appears from all authentic evidence that white traders 
ventured' into the. valley as early as 1740, but always 
left again after transacting their business. It was about 
the year 1741 that bold and daring men pushed into the 
valley with the evident determination of making it their 
home. They were nearly all Scotch-Irish — a hardy race of 
devout Christians, whose ancestors had been persecuted in 
the north of Scotland, b}' Charles I., and driven to the north 
of Ireland, and who, fearful of the provisions of the Schism 
Bill, in their turn fled from Ireland to America, between 
the years 1714 and 1720. The first of them located near or 
about the line (then in dispute) between Maryland and 
Pennsylvania. Logan, the secretary of the province, who 
was probably an adherent to the religion professed by the 
proprietors, was very much annoyed at the Scotch-Irish as- 
sumption and maintenance of "squatter's rights." In a let- 
ter to the Provincial Government, in 1 724, he said, " They 
(the Scotch-Irish and Scotch) have generally taken up the 
western lands ; and as they rarely approach me to j)ropose to 
purchase, I look upon them as bold and indigent strangers, 
giving as their excuse, when challenged for titles, that we 
had solicited for colonists, and they had come accordingly." 

Notwithstanding this, they were not molested, for they 
were exempted from the payment of rents by an ordinance 
passed in 1720, in consequence of their being frontier-men, 
and forming a cordon of defence to the colony. 

Logan, it must be admitted, had no friendly feeling to- 
ward the new comers. In 1725 he stated that they had 
taken possession of one thousand acres of land, resolutely 
sat down and improved it without having any right to it, 



38 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

and he expressed himself much at a loss to determine how 
to disjDOSsess them. On this occasion he admitted that 
among them were a number of Germans. 

In 1730, Logan wrote to the government, or probably the 
proprietors, complaining of the Scotch-Irish, in an audacious 
and disorderly manner, possessing themselves of the whole 
of Conestoga Man8r, of fifteen thousand acres, being the 
best land in the country. In doing this by force, they al- 
leged that it was against the law^s of God and nature that so 
much land should be idle Mobile so many Christians wanted 
it to labor on and raise their bread. They were finally dis- 
possessed by the sheriff and his posse, and their cabins, to 
the number of thirty, w^ere burned. 

These men apparently held in contempt the sham pur- 
chases of Penn from the Indians; asserted that the treaties 
by wdiich the lands w^ere secured to the proprietors were 
nothing more than downright farces ; and they justified their 
course by assuming that if the Penn family had a right to 
"jillibiister^' on an extensive scale, the same right to enjoy 
enough land to support their families should not be denied 
them. If the disciples of George Fox, by craft and cunning, 
could obtain from the Indians thousands upon thousands of 
acres of land by a royal grant and the presentation of bau- 
bles that shamed the idea of a purchase, the disciples of 
John Calvin thought they had an equal right to possess 
themselves of at least a portion of the acres wrested by strat- 
agem from the Indians. They considered the Penns usurp- 
ers and pretenders, and despised their feudal prerogatives 
which gave them pomp and circumstance, and refused to 
pay them the quit-rent^, which enabled them to rule by 
deputy, and riot in the luxury of aristocratic life in Eng- 
land, rather than adopt the unostentatious manners of the 
new world. 

Logan's successor was Richard Peters. He, too, was deeply 
devoted to the proprietors, and used his utmost exertions to 
get quit-rents out of the squatters. Failing to do so peace- 
ably, he went to Marsh Creek, then in Lancaster county, for 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 39 

the express purpose of dispossessing them, and measuring 
the lands of the manor. This occurred in 1743. The squat- 
ters assembled in great force, notwithstanding the secretary- 
was accompanied b}'' the sheriff and a magistrate, and for- 
bade Peters to proceed. On his refusal, the chain was broken, 
and demonstrations of a riot made, whereupon the survey- 
ing party retired. The settlers were afterward indicted, but 
the matter was compromised by the secretary granting them 
leases on very favorable terms. 

From the counties of Chester and Lancaster, these settlers 
gradually worked their way to the west, and about 1748 the 
Kittochtinny Valley was tolerably well settled. The influx 
of emigrants from Europe — embracing Irish, Scotch, Scotch- 
Irish, German, and a few English — was so great, that it fol- 
lowed, as a matter of course, that the Juniata Valley was in 
its turn soon invaded. 

There, in all probability, the j^roprietors would have suf- 
fered them to remain, as they knew little of, and cared less, 
about the land ; but the Indians made complaint of the ag- 
gressions. The Six Nations took the matter in hand, and 
declared that usurping the lands they had guaranteed to 
their cousins, the Delawares, as a sacred , hunting-ground, 
was a breach of faith, and that the settlers must be removed ; 
or, if the settlers persisted in their encroachments, the Dela- 
wares would take up the hatchet against them. Only too 
glad to get rid of their settlers in the lower counties, the 
government made little etfort to remove them from the In- 
dian lands. True, to satisfy the Indians, they issued procla- 
mations warning squatters to keep off these lands, under 
certain penalties which they knew could not be executed. 

These usurpations of land, and the contumely with which 
the settlers treated the Indians, at length threatened serious 
consequences. The Delawares, as well as the Six Nations, 
made complaints such as could not be misunderstood. The 
proprietors, at length alarmed at the probable consequences 
of letting their squatters usurp the lands or hunting-grounds 
of the Indians, sent Peters and others to dispossess them. 



40 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

The following is Secretary Peter's report, sent to Governor 
Hamilton in 1750 : 

TO JAMES HAMILTON, ESQ., GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

May it please your honor, Mr. Weiser and I having received 
your honor's orders to give information to the proper magistrates 
against all such as had presumed to settle on the lands beyond 
the Kittochtinny Mountains not purchased of the Indians, in 
contempt of the laws repeatedly signified by proclamations, and 
particularly your honor's last one, and to bring them to a legal 
conviction, lest for want of their removal a breach should ensue 
between the Six Nations of Indians and this province, we set out 
on Tuesday, the 15th of May, 1750, for the new county of Cum- 
berland, where the places on which the tresspassers had settled 
lay. 

At Mr. Croghan's we met with five Indians, — three from Sha- 
mokin, two of which were sons of the late Shickcalamy, who 
transact the business of the Six Nations with this government ; 
two were just arrived from Alleghany, viz., one of the Mohawk's 
nation, called Aaron, and Andrew Montour, the interpreter at 
Ohio. Mr. Montour telling us he had a message from the Ohio 
Indians and Twightwees to this government, and desiring a con- 
ference, one was held on the 18th of May last, in the presence of 
James Galbreath, George Croghan, William Wilson, and Her- 
manns Alricks, Esqrs., justices of the county of Cumberland; 
and when Mr. Montour's business was done, we, with the advice 
of the other justices, imparted to the Indians the design we were 
assembled upon ; at which they expressed great satisfaction. 

Another conference was held, at the instance of the Indians, 
in the presence of Mr. Galbreath and Mr. Croghan, before men- 
tioned, wherein they expressed themselves as follows : — 

" Brethren, — We have thought a great deal of what you im- 
parted to us, that ye were come to turn the people oif who are 
settled over the hills; we are pleased to see you on this occasion; 
and, as the council of Onondago has this affair exceedingly at 
heart, and it was particularly recommended to us by the depu- 
ties of the Six Nations when they parted from us last summer, 
we desire to accompany you. But we are afraid, notwithstand- 
ing the care of the governor, that this may prove like many for- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 41 

mer attempts. The people will be put off now and next year 
come again ; and if so, the Six Nations will no longer bear it, 
but do themselves justice. To prevent this, therefore, when you 
shall have turned the people off, we recommend it to the gov- 
ernor to place two or three faithful persons over the mountains 
who may be agreeable to him and us, with commissions em- 
powering them immediately to remove every one who may pre- 
sume after this to settle themselves, until the Six Nations shall 
agree to make sale of their land." 

To enforce this they gave a string of wampum, and received 
one in return from the magistrates, with the strongest assurances 
that they would do their duty. 

On Tuesday, the twenty-second of May, Matthew Dill, George 
Croghan, Benjamin Chambers, Thomas Wilson, John Finley, 
and James Galbreath, Esqrs., justices of the said county of 
Cumberland, attended by the under-sheriff, came to Big Juniata, 
situate at the distance of twenty miles from the mouth thereof, 
and about ten miles from the Blue Hills — a place much esteemed 
by the Indians for some of their best hunting-ground ; and 
there they found five cabins or log-houses ; one possessed by 
William White, another by George Cahoon, another not quite 
yet finished, in possession of David Hiddleston, another pos- 
sessed by George and William Galloway, and another by An- 
drew Lycon. Of these persons, William White and George and 
William Galloway, David Hiddleston, and George Cahoon, ap- 
peared before the magistrates, and, being asked by what right or 
authority they had possessed themselves of those lands and erected 
cabins thereon, they replied, by no right or authority, but that 
the land belonged to the proprietaries of Pennsylvania. They 
then were asked whether they did not know that they were act- 
ing against the law, and in contempt of frequent notices given 
them by the governor's proclamation? They said they had seen 
one such proclamation, and had nothing to say for themselves, 
but craved mercy. Hereupon the said William White, George 
and William Galloway, David Hiddleston, and George Cahoon, 
being convicted by said justices on their view, the under-sheriff, 
was charged with them, and he took William White, David Hid- 
dleston, and George Cahoon into custody ; but George and Wil- 
liam Galloway resisted, and having got at some distance from the 
under-sheriff, they called to us, "You may take our lands and 



42 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

houses, and do what you please with them ; we deliver them to 
you with all our hearts, but we will not be carried to jail! " 

The next morning, being Wednesday, the twenty-third of May, 
the said justices went to the log-house or cabin of Andrew Lycon, 
and finding none there but children, and hearing that the father 
and mother were expected soon, and William White and others 
offering to become security jointly and severally, and to enter 
into recognisance as well for Andrew's appearance at court and 
immediate removal as for their own, this proposal was accepted, 
and William White, David Hiddleston, and George Gaboon en- 
tered into a recognisance of one hundred pounds, and executed 
bonds to the proprietaries in the sum of five hundred pounds, 
reciting that they were trespassers, and had no manner of right, 
and had delivered possession to me for the proprietaries. When 
the magistrates went to the cabin or log-house of George and 
William Galloway, (which they had delivered up as aforesaid 
the day before, after tbey were convicted, and were flying from 
the sheriff,) all the goods belonging to the said George and Wil- 
liam were taken out, and the cabin being quite empty, I took 
possession thereof for the proprietaries; and then a conference 
was held what should be done with the empty cabin ; and after 
great deliberation, all agreed that if some empty cabins were 
not destroyed, they would tempt the trespassers to return again, 
or encourage others to come there should these trespassers go 
away ; and so what was doing would signify nothing, since the 
possession of them was at such a distance from the inhabitants, 
could not be kept for the proprietaries ; and Mr. Weiser also giv- 
ing it as his opinion that, if all the cabins were left standing, the 
Indians would conceive such a contemptible opinion of the gov- 
ernment that they would come themselves in the winter, murder 
the people, and set their houses on fire. On these considerations 
the cabin, by my order, was burnt by the under-sheriff and com- 
pany. 

Then the company went to the house possessed by David 
Hiddleston, who had entered into bond as aforesaid; and he 
having voluntarily taken out all the things which were in the 
cabin, and left me in possession, that empty and unfurnished 
cabin was likewise set on fire by the under-sheriff, by my order. 

The next day, being the twenty-fourth of May, Mr. Weiser 
and Mr. Galbreath, with the under-sheriff and myself, on our 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 43 

way to the mouth of the Juniata called at Andrew Lycon's, with 
intent only to inform him that his neighbors were bound for his 
appearance and immediate removal, and to caution him not to 
bring him or them into trouble by a refusal; but he presented a 
loaded gun to the magistrates and sheriff; said he would shoot 
the first man that dared to come nigher. On this he was dis- 
armed, convicted, and committea to the custody of the sheriff. 
This whole transaction happened in the sight of a tribe of Indians 
who had by accident in the night time fixed their tent on that 
plantation ; and Lycon's behavior giving them great offence, the 
Shickcalamies insisted on our burning the cabin, or they would 
do it themselves. Whereupon every thing was taken out of it, 
(Andrew Lycon all the while assisting,) and, possession being 
delivered to me, the empty cabin was set on fire by the under- 
sheriff, and Lycon was carried to jail. 

Mr. Benjamin Chambers and Mr. George Croghan had about 
an hour before separated from us ; and on meeting them again 
in Cumberland county, they reported to me that they had been 
at Sheerman's creek, or little Juniata, situate about six miles over 
the Blue Mountain, and found there James Parker, Thomas 
Parker, Owen McKeib, John McClare, Richard Kirkpatrick, 
James Murray, John Scott, Henry Gass, John Cowan, Simon 
Girtee, and John Kilough, who had settled lands and erected 
cabins or log-houses thereon; and having convicted them of the 
trespass on their view, they had bound them, in recognisances 
of the penalty of one hundred pounds, to appear and answer 
for their trespasses on the first day of the next county court of 
Cumberland, to be held at Shippensburgh ; and that the said 
trespassers had likewise entered into bonds to the proprietaries,' 
in five hundred pounds penalty, to remove oflf immediately, with 
all their servants, cattle, and effects, and had delivered possession 
of their houses to Mr. George Stevenson for the proprietaries' 
use; and that Mr. Stevenson had ordered some the meanest of 
those cabins to be set on fire, where the families were not large 
nor the improvements considerable. 

On Monday, the twenty-eight of Ma}^, we were met at Ship- 
pensburgh by Samuel Smith, William Maxwell, George Croghan, 
Benjamin Chambers, William Allison, William Trent, John 
Finley, John Miller, Hermanus Alricks, and James Galbreath, 
Esquires, justices of Cumberland county, who informed us that 



44 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

the people in the Tuscarora Path, in Big Cove, and at Aucquick, 
would submit. Mr. Weiser most earnestly pressed that he might 
be excused any further attendance, having abundance of neces- 
sary business to do at home; and the other magistrates, though 
with much reluctance, at last consenting, he left us. 

On Wednesday, the thirtieth of May, the magistrates and 
company being detained two days by rain, proceeded over the 
Kittochtinny Mountains and entered into the Tuscarora Path or 
Path Valley, through which the road to Alleghany lies. Many 
settlements were formed in this valle}', and all the people were 
sent for, and the following persons appeared, viz : Abraham Slach, 
James Blair, Moses Moore, Arthur Dunlap, Alexander McCartie, 
David Lewis, Adam McCartie, Felix Doyle, Andrew Dunlap, 
Robert Wilson, Jacob Pyatt, Jr., William Ramage, Reynolds 
Alexander, Robert Baker, John Armstrong, and John Potts; who 
were all convicted by their own confession to the magistrates of 
the like trespasses with those at Sheerman's Creek and were 
bound in the like recognisances to appear at court, and bonds to 
the proprietaries to remove with all their families, servants, 
cattle, and effects ; and having voluntarily given possession of 
their houses to me, some ordinary log-houses, to the number of 
eleven, were burnt to the ground ; the trespassers, most of 
them cheerfully, and a very few of them with reluctance, carry- 
ing out all their goods. Some had been deserted before, and lay 
waste. 

At Aucquick, Peter Falconer, Nicholas De Long, Samuel Perry, 
and John Charleton, were convicted on the view of the magistrates, 
and having entered into like recognisances and executed the like 
bonds, Charleton's cabin was burnt, and fire set to another that 
was just begun, consisting only of a few logs piled and fastened 
to one another. 

The like proceedings at Big Cove (now within Bedford county) 
against Andrew Donnaldson, John MacClelland, Charles Stewart, 
James Downy, John MacMean, Robert Kendell, Samuel Brown, 
William Shepperd, Roger Murphy, Robert Smith, William 
Dickey, William Millican, William MacConnell, James Campbell, 
William Carrell, John Martin, John Jamison, Hans Patter, 
John MacCollin, James Wilson, and John Wilson ; who coming 
before the magistrates, were convicted on their own confession 
of tlie like trespasses, as in former cases, and were all bound 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 45 

over in like recognisances and executed the like bond to the 
proprietaries. Three waste cabins of no value were burnt at 
the north end of the Cove by the persons who claimed a right 
to them. 

The Little Cove (in Franklin county) and the Big and Little 
Conolloways being the only places remaining to be visited, as 
this was on the borders of Maryland, the magistrates declined 
going there, and departed for their homes. 

About the year 1740 or 1741, one Frederick Star, a German, 
with two or- three more of his countrymen, made some settle- 
ments at the place where we found William White, the Gallo- 
ways, and Andrew Lycon, on Big Juniata, situate at the distance 
of twenty miles from the mouth thereof, and about ten miles 
north of the Blue Hills, — a place much esteemed by the Indians 
for some of their best hunting ground; which (German settlers) 
were discovered by the Delawares at Shamokin to the deputies 
of the Six Nations as they came down to Philadelphia in the 
year 1742, to hold a treaty with this government ; and they were 
disturbed at, as to inquire with a peculiar warmth of Gover- 
nor Thomas if these people had come there by the orders or 
with the privilege of the government; alleging that, if it was so, 
this was a breach of the treaties subsisting between the Six Na- 
tions and the proprietor, William Penn, who in the most solemn 
manner engaged to them not to suffer any of the people to 
settle lands till they had purchased from the Council of the Six 
Nations. The governor, as he might with great truth, disowned 
any knowledge of these persons' settlements ; and on the Indians 
insisting that they should be immediately thrown over the 
mountains, he promised to issue his proclamation, and, if this 
had no effect, to put the laws in execution against them. The 
Indians, in the same treaty, publicly expressed very severe 
threats against the inhabitants of Maryland for settling lands 
for which they had received no satisfaction, and said that if 
they would not do them justice they would do justice to, them- 
selves, and would certainly have committed hostilities if a treaty 
had not been under foot between Maryland and the Six Nations, 
under the meditation of Governor Thomas ; at which the Indians 
consented to sell lands and receive a valuable consideration for 
them, which put an end to the danger. 

The proprietaries were then in England ; but observing, on 



46 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

perusing the treaty, with what asperity they had expressed 
themselves against Maryland, and that the Indians had just 
cause to complain of the settlements at Juniata, so near Sha- 
mokin, they wrote to their governor, in very pressing terms, to 
cause those trespassers to be immediately removed ; and both 
the proprietaries and governor laid these commands on me to 
see this done, which I accordingly did in June, 1743, the Gover- 
nor having first given them notice by a proclamation served on 
them. 

At that time none had presumed to settle at a pla'ce called the 
Big Cove — having this name from its being enclosed in the form 
of a basin by the southernmost range of the Kittochtinny Hills 
and Tuscarora Hills ; which last end here, and lose themselves 
in other hills. This Big Cove is about five miles north of the 
temporary line, and not far west of the place where the line ter- 
minated. Between the Big Cove and the temporary line lies the 
Little Cove, — so called from being likewise encircled with hills ; 
and to the west of the Little Cove, toward Potowmec, lie two 
other places, called the Big and Little Conollaways, all of them 
situate on the temporary line, and all of them extended toward 
the Potowmec. 

In the year 1741 or 1742 information was likewise given that 
people were beginning to settle in those places, some from Mary- 
land and some from this province. But as the two governments 
were not then on very good terms, the governor did not think 
proper to take any other notice of these settlements than to send 
the sherifi' to serve his proclamation on them, though they had 
ample occasion to lament the vast inconvenience which attend 
unsettled boundaries. After this the French war came on, and 
the people in those parts, taking advantage of the confusion of 
the times, by little and little stole into the Great Cove; so that 
at the end of the war it was said thirty families had settled 
there; not, however, without frequent prohibitions on the part 
of the government, and admonitions of the great danger they 
run of being cut off by the Indians, as these settlements were 
on lands not purchased of them. At the close of the war, Mr. 
Maxwell, one of the justices of Lancaster county, delivered a 
particular message from this government to them, ordering their 
removal, that they might not occasion a breach with the Indians, 
but it had no effect. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 47 

These were, to the best of my remembrance, all the places 
settled by Pennsylvanians in the unpurchased part of the prov- 
ince, till about three years ago, when some persons had the 
presumption to go into Path Valley or Tuscarora Gap, lying to 
the east of the Big Cove, and into a place called Aucquick, lying 
to the northward of it; and likewise into a place called Sheer- 
man's creek, lying along the waters of Juniata, and is situate 
east of the Path Valley, through which the present road goes 
from Harris's Ferry to Alleghany ; and lastly, they extended 
their settlements to Big Juniata; the Indians all this while re- 
peatedly complaining that their hunting-ground was every day 
more and more taken from them ; and that there must infallibly 
arise quarrels between their warriors and these settlers, which 
would in the end break the chain of friendship, and pressing in 
the most importunate terms their speedy removal. The govern- 
ment in 1748 sent the sheriff and three magistrates, with Mr. 
Weiser, into these places to warn the people ; but they, notwith- 
standing, continued their settlements in opposition to all this; 
and, as if those people were prompted by a desire to make mis- 
chief, settled lands no better, nay not so good, as many vacant 
lands within the purchased parts of the province. 

The bulk of these settlements were made during the adminis- 
tration of President Palmer; and it is well known to your honor, 
though then in England, that his attention to the safety of the 
city and the lower counties would not permit him to extend more 
care to places so remote. 

Finding such a general submission, except the two Galloways 
and Andrew Lycon, and vainly believing the evil would be 
effectually taken away, there was no kindness in my power 
which I did not do for the offenders. 'I gave them money where 
they were poor, and telling them they might go directly on any 
part of the two million of acres lately purchased of the Indians; 
and where the families were large, as I happened to have several 
of my own plantations vacant, I offered them to stay on them 
rent free, till they could provide for themselves : then I told them 
that if after all this lenity and good usage they would dare to 
stay after the time limited for their departure, no mercy would 
be shown them, but that they would feel the rigor of the law. 

It may be proper to add that the cabins or log-houses which 



48 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

were burnt were of no considerable value; being such as the 
country people erect in a day or two, and cost only the charge 
of an entertainment. Richard Peters. 

July 2, 1750. 

From this summary proceeding originated the name of 
the place called the Burnt Cabins, the locality of which is 
pointed out to the traveller to this day. 

That these ejected tenants at will did not remain perma- 
nently ejected from the fertile valley of the Juniata is 
evident from the fact that their descendants, or many of 
them, of the third and fourth generations, are now occupying 
the ver}^ lands they were driven from. 

In July, 1750, the government was thrown into alarm by 
the rumor that a Mr. Delany, had, while speaking of the 
removal of the tres2:)assers on the unpurchased lands north- 
west of the Kittochtinny Hills, said, " that if the people of 
the Great and Little Coves would apply to Maryland they 
might have warrants for their lands; and if those of the 
Tuscarora Path Valley w^ould apply to Virginia, he did not 
doubt but they might obtain rights there." 

Petitions were sent to the Council from the residents of the 
Coves, in which it was set forth that they did not wish to be 
either in the province of Maryland or Virginia, and prayed 
permission to remain, until the boundary of the provinces 
was determined, on the lands purchased from the Indians. 

This proposition was not accepted, and was only followed 
up by proclamations injposing severe penalties upon tres- 
passers. This was deemed absolutely necessary by Governor 
Hamilton, for the French were assuming a menacing attitude 
along the frontier, and it was necessary at all hazards, to 
preserve the alliance of the Indians. 

The Provincial Government was strong enough to drive 
the settlers out of the valley, but immeasurably too weak to 
keep them out. This brought about the treaty at Albany 
in 1754, to which we have previously alluded. Thomas and 
Richard Penn, seeing the government unable to remove the 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 49 

squatters permanently, in consequence of the feelings of the 
people being with the latter, bought from the sachems the very 
considerable slice of land in which was included the Valley 
of the Juniata, for the trifling consideration of £400. This 
w^as supposed to act as a healing balm for the trespasses upon 
their hunting-grounds, and at the same time the Penns un- 
doubtedly entertained the idea that they could realize a 
handsome profit in re-selling the lands at an advanced price 
to those who occupied them, as well as to European emi- 
grants constantly arriving and anxious to purchase. 

The Indian chiefs and sachems who were not present at 
this treat}^ were highly indignant, and pronounced the whole 
transaction a gross fraud ; and those who were present at the 
treaty declared they were outwitted by misrepresentations, 
and grossly defrauded. Conrad Weiser, the Indian inter- 
preter, in his journal of a conference at Aughwick, stated 
that the dissatisfaction with the purchase of 1754 was general. 
The Indians said the}^ did not understand the points of the 
compass, and if the line was so run as to include the west 
branch of Susquehanna, they would never agree to it. Ac- 
cording to Smith's Laws, vol. xxi., p. 120, "the land where 
the Shawnee and Ohio Indians lived, and the hunting- 
grounds of the Delawares, the Nanticokes, and the Tutelos^ 
were all included." 

So decided and general was the dissatisfaction of the 
Indians, that, in order to keep what few remained from being 
alienated, the proprietors found it necessary to cede back to 
them, at a treaty held in Easton, in October, 1758, all the 
land lying north and w^est of the Alleghany Mountains within 
the province. The restoration, however, came too late to 
effect much good. 

But even the lands west of the Alleghan}^ Mountains were 
not sacred to the Indians, mountainous as they were and 
unfertile as they were deemed; for westward the squatter 
went, gradually encroaching upon the red men's last reserve,, 
until he finally settled in their midst. These aggressions 
were followed by the usual proclamations from the govern- 
4 



50 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

ment, but they had little or no effect in preventing the bold 
adventurers from crossing the Alleghany Mountains and 
staking out farms in the valley of the Conemaugh. This 
continued for a number of years, until the government, 
wearied by unavailing efforts to keep settlers from Indian 
lands, caused a stringent ■ law to be passed by Council in 
February, 1768, when it was enacted " that if any person 
settled upon the unpurchased land neglected or refused to 
remove from the same within thirty days after they were re- 
quired to do so by persons to be aj)pointed for that purpose 
by the governor or his proclamation, or, having so removed, 
should return to such settlement, or the settlement of any 
other person, with or without a family, to remain and settle 
on such lands, or if any person after such notice resided and 
settled on such lands, every such person so neglecting or re- 
fusing to remove, or returning to settle as aforesaid, or that 
should settle after the requisition or notice aforesaid, being 
legally convicted, was to he punished with death without the ben- 
efit of clergy." 

There is no evidence on record that the provision of this 
act was ever enforced, although it was openly violated. It 
was succeeded by laws a little more lenient, making fine 
and imprisonmont the punishment in lieu of the death-pen- 
alty "without the benefit of clergy," Neither does the re- 
cord say that the coffers of the provincial treasury ever be- 
came plethoric with the collection of fines paid by trespassers. 

During the Indian wars of 1762-63, many of the inhabi- 
tants of the valley fled to the more densely populated dis- 
tricts for safety. Up to this time few forts were built for de- 
fense, and the settlers dreaded the merciless warfare of the 
savages. The restoration of peace in the latter year brought 
a considerable degree of repose to the long harassed colonies. 
The turbulent Indians of the Ohio buried the hatchet in 
October, 1764, on the plains of Muskingum, which enabled 
the husbandman to reassume his labors and to extend his 
cultivation and improvements. The prosperity of Pennsyl- 
vania increased rapidly; and those who were compelled by 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 51 

Indian warfare to abandon their settlements rapidly returned 
to them. The Juniata Valley, and especially the lower part 
of it, gained a considerable accession of inhabitants in the 
shape of sturdy tillers of the soil and well-disposed Christian 
people. 

For a time the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians maintained rule 
in religion; but, about 1767, German Lutherans, Irish Cath- 
olics, and some few Dunkards and other denominations, 
found their way to the valley. Meeting-houses were built, 
stockade forts erected, and communities of neighbors formed 
for mutual protection, without regard to religious distinctions. 

The first settlements of the upper portion of the valley 
were not effected until between 1765 and 1770. True, there 
was here and there an isolated family, but the danger of 
being so near the Kittaning Path was deemed too hazardous. 
It was in the upper part of the valley, too, that most of the 
massacres took place between 1776 and 1782, as the lower 
end of it was too thickly populated and too well prepared 
for the marauders to permit them to make incursions or 
commit depredations. 



52 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER III. 

JUNIATA ISLAND — AN INDIAN PARADISE — REV. DAVID BRAINERD 
AMONG THE SAVAGES — THE EARLY SETTLERS, HULINGS, WATTS, 
AND BASKINS — INDIAN BATTLES — REMARKABLE ESCAPE OP MRS. 
HULINGS, ETC. 

<?^|UNIATA ISLAND— now called Duncan's Island, in 
fli consequence of the Duncan family being the propri- 
^r etors for many years — is formed by the confluence of 
the Juniata and Susquehanna. Stretching northward, it 
presents a lovely and fertile plain, surrounded by gorgeous 
and romantic scenery, surpassed by few places iA the State. 
This must have been a very paradise for the sons of the 
forest. Facing to the west, before them lay their beautiful 
hunting-grounds; facing to the south, the eye rested upon 
the " long crooked river," over whose rippling bosom danced 
the light bark canoe, and whose waters were filled with the 
choicest of fish. With such blessings within their reach, the 
inhabitants of the Juniata Island should have been superla- 
tively happy, and probably would, had it not been for the 
internal feuds which existed among the tribes. Although 
the wigwams of two distinct tribes dotted the island on the 
arrival of the white man, social intercourse and the most 
friendly terms of intimacy existed between them. They 
were the Shawnees and the Conoys. Then, too, it betokened 
a peaceable spot, and yet it had been a famous Indian battle- 
ground in its day. The traditions speak of a battle fought 
many years ago, between the Delawares and Cayugas, on 
this island, when the gullies ran red with blood of mighty 
warriors, and the bones of a thousand of them were en- 
tombed in one common grave upon the battle-field. Both 
tribes suffered severely. The Delawares, although they lost 
the most braves, and were ultimately driven from the field, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 53 

fought with the most savage desperation ; but the Cayugas 
had the advantage in point of numbers, and some of them 
used fire-arms, then totally unknown to the Delawares. 

The first adventurers who went up the Susquehanna were 
Indian traders, who took up articles for traffic in canoes. 
Fascinated by the beautiful scenery of the country, and im- 
pressed with the idea that corn and fruits grew upon the 
island spontaneously, these traders did not fail to give it a 
name and reputation ; and curiosity soon prompted others 
to visit the "Big Island," as they called it. Some of them 
soon went so far as to contemplate a settlement upon it. 
This, however, the Indians would not permit ; they were 
willing to trade at all times with them, but the island was 
a kind of reservation, and on no condition would they per- 
mit the pale-faces to share it with them. Even had they 
suffered white m.en to settle among them, none would have 
repented the act, as a rash step, more bitterly than the white 
men themselves; for the Shawnees were a treacherous nation, 
and exceedingly jealous of any innovations upon their rights 
or the customs of their fathers. 

Still, the island became settled at an early day. The 
roving Shawnees pushed their way westward, and the pre- 
judices of those who took their place were probably over- 
come by presents of guns, ammunition, tobacco, and fir e-ivater. 

The Rev. David Brainerd, a devout and pious missionary, 
visited the island in 1745, in the spring while going up the 
river, and in the fall while returning. His object was to 
convert the Indians, which he found quite as hopeless a task 
as did Heckwelder and Loskiel, who preceded him with the 
same object in view. During his peregrinations Brainerd 
kept a journal, which, together with his life, was published 
by the American Tract Society. From this journal we ex- 
tract the following, in order to give his view of savage life, 
as well as an interesting account of what he saw and heard 
at the island : — 

Sept. 20. — Visited the Indians again at Juneauta Island, and 
found them almost universally busy in making preparations 



54 HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

for a great sacrifice and dance. Had no opportunity to get them 
together in order to discourse with them about Christianity, by 
reason of their being so much engaged about their sacrifice. My 
spirits were much sunk with a prospect so very discouraging, and 
specially seeing I had this day no interpreter but a pagan, who 
was as much attached to idolatry as any of them, and who could 
neither speak nor understand the language of these Indians ; so 
that I was under the greatest disadvantages imaginable. How- 
ever, I attempted to discourse privately with some of them, but 
without any appearance of success ; notwithstanding, I still 
tarried with them. 

The valuable interpreter was probably a Delaware Indian, 
who was a visitor to take part in the dance and sacrifice, 
while the inhabitants of the island were Shawnees, who 
originally came from the south, and their language was en- 
tirely dissimilar. Brainerd calls them "pagans" and "idol- 
aters." This is a charge the Indians used to combat most 
vehemently. They most unquestionably had small images 
carved out of wood to represent the Diety ; yet they repu- 
diated the idea of worshi^tping the wood, or the wooden 
image, merely using it as a symbol through which to W' orship 
the Unseen Spirit. If such was the fact, they could not well 
be called pagans in the common acceptation of the term. 
The journal goes on to say: — 

In the evening they met together, nearly one hundred of them, 
and danced around a large fire, having prepared ten fat deer for 
the sacrifice. The fat of the inwards they burnt in the fire while 
they were dancing, which sometimes raised the flame to a pro- 
digious height, at the same time yelling and shouting in such a 
manner that they might easily have been heard two miles or 
more. They continued their sacred dance nearly all night; after 
which they ate the flesh of the sacrifice, and so retired each one 
to his own lodging. 

Making a burnt-offering t>f deer-fat to illuminate the dance 
and to make a meat-offering to the insatiate Indian appetite' 
after undergoing such fatigues, of the roasted venison, had 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 55 

not much idolatry in it. Unconnected with any rehgious 
ceremony, such a proceeding might have been considered 
rational, and coming altogether within the meaning of the 
Masonic principle which recognises "refreshment after labor." 
Mr. Brainerd continues: — 

Lord's-day, Sep, 21. — Spent the day with the Indians on the 
island. As soon as they were well up in the morning, I attempted 
to instruct them, and labored for that purpose to get them to- 
gether, but soon found they had something else to do; for near 
noon they gathered together all their powaws, or conjurors, and 
set about half a dozen of them playing their juggling tricks and 
acting their frantic, distracted postures, in order to find out why 
they were then so sickly upon the island, numbers of them being 
at that time disordered with a fever and a bloody flux. In this 
exercise they were engaged for several hours, making all the wild, 
ridiculous, and distracted motions imaginable ; sometimes singing, 
sometimes howling, sometimes extending their hands to the 
utmost stretch and spreading all their fingers: they seem to push 
with them as if they designed to push something away, or at 
least to keep it off at arm's-end ; sometimes stroking their faces 
with their hands, then spouting water as fine as mist; sometimes 
sitting flat on the earth, then bowing their faces to the ground; 
then wringing their sides as if in pain and anguish, twisting 
their faces, turning up their eyes, grunting, pufiing, &c. 

This looks more like idolatry than sacrificing ten fat deer 
and dancing by the light of their burning fat. Yet, if cur- 
ing disease b}^ powwowing, incantation, or the utterance of 
charms, can be considered idolatry, we. are not without it 
even at this late day. We need not go out of the Juniata 
Valley to find professing Christians who believe as much in 
cures wrought by charms as they do in Holy Writ itself. 

" Their monstrous actions tended to excite ideas of horror, and 
seemed to have something in them, as I thought, peculiarly 
suited to raise the devil, if he could be raised by anything odd, 
ridiculous, and frightful. Some of them, I could observe, were 
much more fervent and devout in the business than others, and 
seemed to chant, whoop, and mutter, with a degree of warmth 



56 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

and vigor as if determined to awaken and engage the powers 
below. I sat at a small distance, not more than thirty feet from 
them, though undiscovered, with my Bible in my hand, resolving) 
if possible, to spoil their sport and prevent their receiving any 
answers from the infernal world, and there viewed the whole 
scene. They continued their hideous charms and incantations 
for more than three hours, until they had all wearied themselves 
out, although they had in that space of time taken several 
intervals of rest; and at length broke up, I apprehend, without 
receiving any answer at all." 

Very likely they did not; but is it not most singular that 
a man with the reputation for piety and learning that Brain- 
erd left behind him should arm himself with a Bible to spoil 
the spirit of the Indians, in case their incantations should 
raise the demon of darkness, which, it would really appear, 
he apprehended? In speaking of the Shawnee Indians, or 
"Shawanose," as they were then called, he stigmatizes them 
as "drunken, vicious, and profane." What their profanity 
consisted of he does not say. According to all Indian his- 
torians, the Indians had nothing in their language that rep- 
resented an oath. Brainerd goes on to say of the Shawnees : — 

Their customs, in various other respects, differ from those of 
the other Indians upon this river. They do not bury their dead 
in a common form, but let their flesh consume above the ground, 
in close cribs made for that purpose. At the end of a year, or 
sometimes a longer space of time, they take the bones, when the 
flesh is atl consumed, and wash and scrape them, and afterward 
bury them with some ceremony. Their method of charming or 
conjuring over the sick seems somewhat different from that of 
the other Indians, though in substance the same. The whole of 
it, among these and others, perhaps, is an imitation of what 
seems, by Naaman's expression, (2 Kings v. 11,) to have been 
the custom of the ancient heathen. It seems chiefly to consist 
of their "striking their hands over the deceased," repeatedly 
stroking them, "and calling upon their God," except the spurt- 
ing of water like a mist, and some other frantic ceremonies com- 
mon to the other conjurations which I have already mentioned. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 57 

In order to give Mr. Brainerd's impression of their cus- 
toms, as well as an interesting account of a " medicine-man" 
who possessed rather singular religious opinions, we shall 
close with his journal, with another paragraph : — 

When I was in this region in May last, I had an opportunity 
of learning many of the notions and customs of the Indians, as 
well as observing many of their practices. I then travelled more 
than one hundred and thirty miles upon the river, above the 
English settlements, and in that journey met with individuals 
of seven or eight distinct tribes, speaking as many different lan- 
guages. But of all the sights I ever saw among them, or indeed 
anywh'fe else, none appeared so frightful or so near akin to 
what is usually imagined of infernal powers^ none ever excited 
such images of terror in my mind, as the appearance of one who 
was a devout and zealous reformer, or rather restorer of what he 
supposed was the ancient religion of the Indians. He made his 
appearance in his pontifical garb, which was a coat of bear-skins^ 
dried with the hair on, and hanging down to his toes; a pair of 
bear-skin stockings, and a great wooden face, painted, the one 
half black, the other half tawny, about the color of an Indian's 
skin, with an extravagant mouth, but very much awry ; the face 
fastened to a bear-skin cap, which was drawn over his head. He 
advanced towards me with the instrument in his hand which he 
used for music in his idolatrous worship, which was a dry tor- 
toise-shell with some corn in it, and the neck of it drawn on to 
a piece of wood, which made a very convenient handle. As he 
came forward, he beat his tune with the rattle, and danced with 
all his might, but did not suffer any part of his body, not so 
much as his fingers, to be seen. No one would have imagined, 
from his appearance or actions, that he could have been a human 
creature, if they had not had some intimation of it otherwise* 
When he came near me, I could not but shrink away from him, 
although it was then noonday, and I knew who it was, his appear- 
ance and gestures were so prodigiously frightful. He had a 
house consecrated to religious uses, with divers images cut upon 
the several parts of it. I went in, and found the ground beaten 
almost as hard as a rock with their frequent dancing upon it. 
I discoursed with him about Christianity. Some of my dis- 
course he seemed to like, but some of it he disliked extremely. 



58 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

He told me that God had taught him his religion, and that he 
never would turn from it, but wanted to find some one who 
would join heartily with him in it; for the Indians, he said, 
were grown very degenerate and corrupt. He had thoughts, he 
said, of leaving all his friends, and travelling abroad, in order 
to find some who would join with him ; for he believed that God 
had some good people somewhere, who felt as he did. He had 
not always, he said, felt as he now did ; but had formerly been 
like the rest of the Indians, until about four or five years before 
that time. Then, he said, his heart was very much distressed, 
so that he could not live among the Indians, but got away into 
the woods, and lived alone for some months. At length, he 
said, God comforted his heart, and showed him what he should 
do; and since that time he had known God and tried to serve 
him, and loved all men, be they who they would, so as he never 
did before. He treated me with uncommon courtesy, and seemed 
to be hearty in it. I was told by the Indians that he opposed 
their drinking strong liquor with all his power; and that if at 
any time he could not dissuade them from it by all he could 
say, he would leave them, and go crying into the woods. It 
was manifest that he had a set of religious notions, which he 
had examined for himself and not taken for granted upon bare 
tradition; and he relished or disrelished whatever was spoken 
of a religious nature, as it either agreed or disagreed with his 
standard. While I was discoursing, he would sometimes say, 
"Now that I like; so God has taught me," &c.; and some of his 
sentiments seemed very just. Yet he utterly denied the exist- 
ence of a devil, and declared there was no such creature known 
among the Indians of old times, whose religion he supposed he 
was attempting to revive. He likewise told me that departed 
souls went southward^ and that the difference between the good 
and bad was this : that the former were admitted into a beautiful 
town with spiritual walls, and that the latter would forever 
hover around these walls in vain attempts to get in. He seemed 
to be sincere, honest, and conscientious, in his own way, and 
according to his own religious notions, which was more than 
ever I saw in any other pagan. I perceived that he was looked 
upon and derided among most of the Indians as a precise zealot, 
who made a needless noise about religious matters ; but I must 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 59 

say that there was something in his temper and disposition 
which looked more like true religion than any thing I ever ob- 
served among other heathens. 

If Brainerd was not grossly imposed upon, the Indian 
was a remarkable man, and his code of ethics might be used 
with profit by a great many persons now treading the paths 
of civilization and refinement. But it is more than probable 
that he had based the groundwork of his religion on what 
he had learned from the Moravian missionaries. In the en- 
suing summer Brainerd again ascended the Susquehanna, 
where he contracted disease by exposure, and died in the fall. 

The earliest permanent white settler upon the island was 
a gentleman named Hulings, who located near the mouth 
of the Juniata, over which, in after years, he established a 
ferry; and, after travel increased and the traders took their 
goods up the rivers on pack-horses, he built a sort of cause- 
way, or bridge, for the passage of horses, at the upper end of 
the island. He settled on the island in 1746. He was fol- 
lowed by another adventurer, named Watts, who staked out 
a small j)atch of land, with the view of farming it. It was 
already cleared, and he purchased it from the Indians. The 
children of these families intermarried, and their descend- 
ants to this day own the greater portion of the island. A 
few years after the settlement of Watts and Hulings, a gen- 
tleman named Baskin came from below, and settled near the 
point of the island. He was an enterprising man, and had 
no sooner erected himself a temporary shelter than he estab- 
lished a ferry across the Susquehanna. The ferry became 
profitable, and Baskin realized a fortune out of it. It was a 
sort of heirloom in the family for several generations, until 
the State improvements were built, when a bridge was erected. 
Baskin's Ferry w^as known far and wide; and there are still 
some descendants of the name residing, or who did reside a 
few years ago, where the ferry crossed. 

Shortly after Braddock's defeat, the country was greatly 
alarmed by rumors that the French and Indians were com- 



!.i 



60 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

ing down the Susquehanna in great numbers, with the 
avowed intention of slaughtering the British colonists and 
laying waste all their habitations. Nor was this rumor 
without foundation; for the massacres already committed 
up the Susquehanna seemed fully to justify the apprehension. 
Travel along the river was suspended, and a portion of the 
settlers fled to Paxton. Hulings abandoned his ferry, and, 
with a convoy of friendly Delaware Indians, he went to 
Fort Duquesne, where he immediately purchased land, with 
the view of settling permanently. There, however, he found 
little more peace and quiet than he enjoyed at the island. 
The country was rife with alarms of Indian depredations, 
and the settlers were in constant dread of an attack which 
they could not repel. Hulings became dissatisfied, because 
the exchange had disajipointed all his reasonable expecta- 
tions and he determined to return. To this end he disposed 
of his land for £200 — land which now composes the heart 
of the city of Pittsburg, and could not be purchased for 
£2,000,000. In company with another party of friendly 
Indians on their way to the east, he returned to the island, 
re-established his ferr}^, built himself a house at the bridge, 
and for some years lived in security. 

About 1761, accounts of Indian depredations above again 
alarmed the lower settlements; but Mr. Hulings paid no 
attention to them, until a large number of them were seen 
but a short distance above the island, encamped upon a 
piece of table-land. In great haste he packed up a few of 
his most valable articles, and, putting his wife and child 
upon a large black horse, took them to the Point, so as to be 
ready to fly the moment the savages made their appearance. 
At this place there was a half-fallen tree, from the branches 
of w^hich an excellent view of his house, as well as of the 
path beyond it, could be obtained. Here Hulings watched 
for some time, hoping that if the Indians did come down, 
and find his house abandoned, they would go up the Juniata. 
Suddenly it occurred to Hulings that in his haste he had 
left some valuable keepsakes, and he returned forthwith 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 61 

alone. After reconnoitering for some time, he entered the 
house, and was somewhat surprised to find an Indian tinker- 
ing at his gun-lock. The savage was unable to shoot, and, 
as Hulings was a man of powerful frame, he feared to make 
a personal attack upon him. Both appeared to be ready to 
act upon the defensive, but neither was willing to risk an 
attack. 

In the mean time, the reconnoitering and parleying of 
Hulings had taken up so much time that Mrs. Hulings be- 
came alarmed, and concluded that her husband had been 
murdered. Without a thought of the danger, she took her 
child upon the horse before her, plunged him into tlie 
Susquehanna, and the noble charger carried them safely to 
the other shore — a distance of nearly a mile, and at a time, 
too, when the river was unusually high ! Such an achieve- 
ment in modern times would make a woman a heroine, 
whose daring would be extolled from one end of the land to 
the other. 

Soon after this extraordinary feat, Mr. Hulings arrived, 
and he, in turn, became alarmed at the absence of his wife ; 
but he soon saw her making a signal on the other side, 
and, immediately unmooring a canoe at the mouth of the 
Juniata, he got into it and paddled it over. It was the only 
canoe in the neighborhood, — an old one left by Baskin when 
he fled. Hulings had scarcely rejoined his wife before he 
saw the flames shooting up from the old log ferry-house, and 
the savages dancing around it, brandishing their weapons; 
but they were out of harm's way, and succeeded in reaching 
Paxton the same day. In a year or so they returned, and 
ended their days on the island. 

Reference is made by historians to a battle fought between 
the whites and Indians on the island in 1760. The old in- 
habitants, too, spoke of one, but we could ascertain nothing 
definite on the subject. No mention whatever is made of it 
in the Colonial Records. 

After this period but a few of the roving bands of war- 
parties ever came down either the Susquehanna or the Juni- 



62 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

ata as far as the island. The massacre of the Conestoga In- 
dians inspired the up-country savages with so much terror 
that they deemed it certain death to go near the settlement 
of the Paxton boys. 

By the time the revolution commenced, the neighborhood 
of the mouth of the Juniata was thickly populated, and the 
inhabitants had within their reach ample means of defense; 
so that the savages in the employ of the British prudently 
confined their operations to the thickly-settled frontier. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 63 



CHAPTER IV. 

INDIAN TOWNS ALONG THE JUNIATA — LOST CREEK VALLEY DISCOV- 
ERED — MEXICO FIRST SETTLED BY CAPTAIN JAMES PATTERSON IN 
1751 — INDIAN ATTACK UPON SETTLERS AT THE HOUSE OF WILLIAM 
WHITE — MASSACRE OF WHITE — CAPTURE OP A LAD NAMED JOHN 
RIDDLE — HIS RELEASE FROM CAPTIVITY, ETC. 

[For the facts on which the two chapters following are based 
we are indebted to a gentleman named Andrew Banks, an old 
resident of Lost Creek Valley, Juniata county. He was born 
near York, and settled near his late place of residence in 1773, 
and was nearly eighty -nine years of age when we called upon 
him early in December, 1855. We found him enjoying the even- 
ing of a long and well-spent life, with his sense of hearing some- 
what impaired, but his intellect and memory both good. He 
was a man of considerable intelligence, and we found him quite 
willing to give all he knew of the past worthy of record. He 
died about the last of the same month.] 



% 



HE river, from the island to Newport, is hemmed in 
, by mountains ; and while it afforded excellent territory 
for hunting, fishing, and trapping, it held out no in- 
ducements for the Indians to erect their lodges along it. The 
first Indian village above the mouth of the river was located 
on a flat, a short distance above where the town of Newport 
now is. Another was located at the mouth of a ravine a lit- 
tle west of Millerstown. At a former place the Cahoons, 
Hiddlestons, and others were settled, who were ejected, and 
had their cabins burnt by Secretary Peters. After the pur- 
chase of tltese lands at Albany, in 1754, both these towns 
were destroyed, and the Indians went to Ohio. 

Lost Creek Valley, unquestionably one of the most beau- 
tiful valleys in the Juniata region, was entered by some In- 
dian traders as early as 1740. They found it occupied by 
two or three Indian settlements, and they made a successful 



64 HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

barter with the aborigines. The next year they essayed to 
revisit the place, but were unable to find it. The following 
summer they found it again ; hence arose the name of the 
lost cf-eek. There is no record of any massacres by the In- 
dians in this valle}^, and the impression is that they left it 
about 1754, some going toward the frontier, and others to 
the head of Tuscarora Valley. 

The first settlement on the river, in what now constitutes 
Juniata county, was made in 1751, by an adventurous 
Scotch-Irishman known as Captain James Patterson. He 
came across the countr}^ from Cumberland county, accom- 
panied by some five or six others, most of whom settled 
very near to where Mexico now stands. Patterson was a 
bold and fearless man; and he had not long resided in his 
new location before the Indians of the neighborhood both 
hated and feared him. He and his companions cleared the 
land on both sides of the river, built two large log-houses, 
and pierced them with loopholes, so that they might defend 
themselves from any attacks the savages might make. Pat- 
terson soon became aware of the fact that his reckless daring, 
especially in braving the proclamations of the proprietors in 
settling upon unpurchased Indian lands, had inspired the 
Indians with fear ; hence he did not condescend to make an 
effort to purchase from the Indians, or even build a fort for 
the protection of his little colony. In addition to his reck- 
lessness, he possessed a good share of cunning, that on many 
occasions served his purpose. For instance, he used to keep 
a target, the center of which was riddled with bullets, lean- 
ing against a tree. Whenever ho found a party of friendly 
Indians api)roaching, he used to stand under his door and 
blaze away at the target, but always stop when the Indians 
were near the house. The Indians would invariably ex- 
amine the target, measure the distance — about four hundred 
feet — with the eye, and conclude among themselves that 
Patterson would be an exceedingly tough customer in a 
fight ! His reputation for shooting obtained for him among 
the Delawares the name of " Big Shot." 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 65 

Patterson was a very bold squatter, and staked of for him- 
self a large body of land, declaring that Providence had de- 
signed it for the use of Christian people to raise food upon, 
and not for Indian war-dances. But, with all his fancied 
security and his contemptuous opinion of the "cowardly 
red-skins," they put him to his trumps at last. In the year 
1755 they no longer visited his settlement on the friendly 
mission of bartering furs and venison for rum and tobacco, 
but they commenced prowling about in small parties, painted 
for war, armed with the rifle — the use of which they had 
already acquired — and exceedingly dangerous-looking knives 
and tomahawks. Patterson became alarmed, and, actuated 
by a settled conviction that " discretion " was the better part 
of valor, himself and his companions crossed the Tuscarora 
Mountain and took refuge in Sherman's Valley. A few 
years after he returned, but he found his land parcelled, and 
occupied by others, who held deeds of purchase for it from 
the proprietory government. Nothing daunted, however, he 
took possession of another piece of land, and commenced 
cultivating it, without going through the land-office fomula 
of obtaining a legal title for it. He was a man of some in- 
telligence, and held in supreme contempt the Penn family 
and their treaties with the Indians. He declared that the 
Albany treaty did not give them a shadow of right to the 
land ; and, as it was not considered morall}^ wrong for the 
Penns to wheedle the Indians out of millions of acres of 
land for the paltry sum of £400, he did not see any wrong 
in his cheating the Penn family out of a farm. 

For some years peace and quiet reigned in the neighbor- 
hood; but in the spring of 1763 the red men again lifted 
the hatchet, and the settlers were thrown into awe and con- 
sternation. Constant rumors were afloat of their depreda- 
tions, and at length a scouting party returned with the un- 
welcome intelligence that a body of Shawnees were en- 
camped in Tuscarora Valley. As speedily as possible, all the 
movable effects were placed upon pack-horses, and the settlers, 
by extremely cautious manoeuvering, succeeded in escaping 
5 



66 HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

safely, and again took up their residence in Sherman's 
Valley. 

The spring having been exceedingly favorable, the grain 
crop was ready to cut early in July, and a party was 
formed by the settlers, and some few others, to go back and 
assist each other in getting in their harvest. On their ar- 
rival they set vigorously to work ; and, no traces of savages 
being perceptible, in their anxiety to get in the grain they 
appeared to forget them, notwithstanding each man carried 
with him his trusty rifle wheresoever he went. On Sunday, 
while resting from their labors, some ten or twelve Shawnee 
Indians approached the house of William White, where all 
the settlers were spending the Sabbath. They crawled up to 
the house unperceived, and fired a volley through the open 
door, killing Mr. White and wounding some of his family. 
The wildest consternation seized upon the party within, and, 
in the great confusion which followed, all escaped by the 
back-door except William Riddle. Some swam the river ; 
others escaped in diff"erent directions. Riddle did not see a 
son of his, aged about twelve years, escape ; and, without 
probably being conscious of what he was doing, walked to- 
ward the front-door, where a savage fired at him. The 
muzzle of the gun was so near Riddle's face that the dis- 
charge literally filled it with gunpowder. The ball grazed, 
but did not injure him. At the moment the savage dis- 
charged his rifle. Riddle was tripped by something on the 
floor, and fell. The Indians took it for granted they both 
were killed, and set up a loud shout of victory. While 
holding a consultation about their future movements. Riddle 
jumped up suddenly and ran. Several Indians fired, and 
for a short distance pursued him ; but he soon distanced the 
fleetest runner among them. The marauders then returned, 
and, after scalping Mr. White, plundered the house of all 
the ammunition they could find, some few other trifling 
articles, and then set fire to it. 

On taking their departure from the place, from a high 
bluff" near the house they discovered Riddle's son, who was 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 67 

trying to conceal himself in a rye-field. They captured him 
andtook him along with them. In order to give an account 
of his captivity, we shall be compelled to defer an account of 
the further depredations of the same band until the next 
chapter. 

Some years after peace was restored — the precise year not 
known, but supposed to have been in 1767, — Riddle started 
for the frontier in search of his son. This was a time of 
almost profound peace, which followed the numerous massa- 
cres of the few preceding years, and a time, too, when the 
Indians had been taught some severe lessons, and were dis- 
posed to act friendly toward the whites. Riddle travelled 
on horseback, and passed numerous Indian villages, but 
could hear no tidings of his son until he came upon an en- 
campment of Shawnee Indians near Lake Erie. As he 
neared the village, he saw the warriors returning from the 
chase, and among them a youthful-looking brave with an 
eagle-feather waving on his cap, and all the paraphernalia 
of a young chief decorating his person. His bearing erect, 
his step firm, he trod the path with a proud and haughty 
air. But a single glance sufficed for Riddle to recognise in 
the youthful warrior his son John. Dismounting from his 
horse, he sprang forward and attempted to throw himself 
into his arms; but, strange to say, his advances were repulsed! 
Even when the lad was convinced that he was Riddle's off- 
spring, he refused to go with him, but declared his deter- 
mination to remain with the tribe. 

During the few years that he had been among the sons of 
the forest, he had most thoroughly imbibed their habits and 
a strong love for their wild and romantic life. The chase, 
the woods, the council-fires and the wigwams, the canoe and 
the dance of the squaws, were enchantment to him, in the 
enjoyment of which he lost all recollections of home or his 
parents; and when his father declared that he would use a 
parent's prerogative to force him to accompany him, young 
Riddle, almost frantic with despair, called upon his warrior 
friends to interfere in his behalf. But the Indians, fearful 



68 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

of the consequences that might result from any interference 
of the kind, acknowledged Riddle's right to reclaim his son, 
since the red man and the white man had smoked the pipe 
of peace. It was, therefore, with great reluctance that John 
Riddle prepared to depart immediately. He took a hasty 
farewell of his warrior companions, and, mounting behind 
his father, they turned their faces toward the valley of the 
Juniata. Mr. Riddle, with commendable zeal and a great 
deal of prudence, put as much ground between him and the 
Shawnee village, before nightfall, as possible. He pitched 
his tent for the night on the edge of a thicket, and partook 
of some provisions which he had in his saddle-bag; and, 
after talking for an hour or two, they stretched themselves 
before the fire to sleep. Young Riddle appeared resigned, 
and had even conversed gayly and cheerfully with his 
father; but the old man had his misgivings, and he feared 
that treachery was hidden beneath this semblance of cheer- 
fulness. The consequence was that he lay awake for hours; 
but at length the fatigues of the day overcame him, and he 
sank into a deep sleep, from which he did not awake until 
the sun was up, and then only to find that his son had fled! 
The emotions of a father under such circumstances may be 
imagined, but certainly they cannot well be described. A 
man of less energy would have given up the object of his 
mission as hopeless, and returned home. 

Not so, however, with Riddle, for he hastened back to the 
Indian village, and asked the Indians sternly for his son. 
Unused or unwilling to dissemble, they frankly told him 
that he was in the council-house, and demanded their pro- 
tection ; that he had eaten, drank, and smoked, with the red 
man, and that he was unwilling to acknowledge a pale-face 
as a father or a brother. This highly incensed Riddle, and 
he declared that if his son were not delivered up to him, 
he would bring the forces from the nearest fort and extermi- 
nate them; and, further, that, if any injury befell him, his 
friends, who knew his mission, would follow and avenge 
him. A council was immediately called, and the subject de- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 69 

bated. The young warriors of the village were determined 
that young Riddle should remain among them at all haz- 
ards ; but the counsel of the older chiefs, who evidently fore- 
saw what would follow, prevailed, and young Riddle was 
again placed in charge of -his father. The old man, profit- 
ing by experience, took his son to a frontier fort, and from 
thence home, reasoning with him all the way on the folly of 
adopting the life of a savage. 

Riddle grew to manhood, and reared a large family in 
Walker township, all of whom many years ago went to the 
West. He is represented by Mr. Banks as having been a 
quiet and inoffensive man, except when he accidentally in- 
dulged in the too free use of ^^fire-watery It was then that 
all the characteristics of the red man manifested themselves. 
" On such occasions his eye flashed, and all his actions be- 
tokened the wily savage." 



70 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER V. 

EARLY SETTLERS AT LICKING CREEK — RELICS OF AN INDIAN BATTLE 
— HOUSE OF ROBERT CAMPBELL ATTACKED — JAMES CAMPBELL 
WOUNDED AND TAKEN PRISONER — SCOUT SENT FROM SHERMAN's 
CREEK — ENCOUNTERED INDIANS AT BUFFALO CREEK — FIVE OF THE 
SCOUT KILLED, ETC. 

(^^^jLHE neighborhood of the mouth of Licking Creek was 
^1 , settled about 1 750. The first settler was Hugh Hardy, 
^T a Scotch-Irishman, who located about a mile from the 
mouth of the creek. He was followed by families named 
Castner, Wilson, Law, Scott, Grimes, and Sterrit, all Scotch- 
Irish, and the last two traders in Indians goods. 

At the time of their advent at Licking Creek, the Indians 
were exceedingly friendly, and pointed out to them a famous 
battle-ground near the creek. The oral traditions of the 
battle preserved by them was as follows : — On one side of the 
creek was a village of the Delawares, on the other a village 
of the Tuscaroras. Both tribes lived in harmony — hunted 
on the same grounds, seated themselves around the same 
council-fires, and smoked in common the pipe of peace, and 
danced the green-corn dance together beneath the pale rays 
of the mellow harvest-moon. These amicable relations 
might have existed for years, had not a trivial incident brought 
about a sad rupture. Some Indian children at play on the 
bank of the creek commenced quarreling about a grass-hop- 
per. High words led to blows. The women of the respect- 
ive tribes took up their children's quarrel, and in turn the 
wives' quarrel was taken up by the men. A bloody and 
most sanguinary battle was the result. The struggle was 
long and fierce, and hundreds of warriors, women, and 
children, fell beneath the deadly tomahawk or by the unerr- 
ing arrow. To this day, relics, such as arrow-heads, pipes, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 71 

and human bones, are found upon the spot where tradition 
says the battle occurred. The "grasshopper war" was long 
held up by the sachems as a terrible warning to any tribe 
about to embroil itself in a bootless war. 

Some historians assert that there was once a fort at the 
mouth of Licking Creek, called Fort Campbell, all traces of 
which are now obliterated. Such was not the case. Robert 
Campbell owned the largest house in the settlement, which 
was pierced with loopholes for defense similar to that belong- 
ing to Patterson. The settlers had also been driven away, 
and had returned to reap their harvest. On the Sabbath re- 
ferred to in the preceding chapter, while the harvesters were 
gathered in the house of Campbell, and immediately after the 
massacre at Patterson's, the same band of Indians stealthily 
approached the house of Campbell and fired a volley at the 
inmates. Several persons were wounded, but there is no 
authentic record of any one being killed. 

James Campbell was shot through the wrist, and taken 
prisoner. He was taken to the frontier, probably to Lake 
Erie, and returned in a year or eighteen months afterward. 
But the particulars attending his captivity were never pub- 
lished, neither could we find any person who knew any thing 
about the matter further than that he was captured, and re- 
turned again to his home. 

Immediately after the Indians had discharged their rifles, 
one of them sprang into the house, and with uplifted toma- 
hawk approached a bed on which a man named George 
Dodds was resting. Fortunately for Dodds, his rifle was 
within reach, which he immediately grasped and fired at the 
savage, wounding him in the groin. The Indian retreated, 
and Dodds made his way up-stairs, and through an opening 
in the roof he escaped, went direct to Sherman's Valley, and 
spread the alarm. 

This same band of marauders proceeded up Tuscarora 
Valley, laying waste the country as they went. In the dusk 
of the evening, they came to the house of William Anderson. 
They shot down the old man, who was seated by the table 



72 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

with the open Bible on his lap, and also killed and scalped 
his son and a young woman — an adopted daughter of Mr. 
Anderson. Two brothers named Christy, and a man named 
Graham, neighbors of Mr. Anderson, hearing the guns firing, 
conjectured that the Indians had attacked him ; and their 
own means of defense being inadequate, they fled, and 
reached Sherman's Valley about midnight. Their arrival 
spread new terror, and a volunteer force of twelve men was 
soon raised to go over to the valley to succor the settlers. 
This force consisted of three brothers named Robinson, John 
Graham, Charles Elliot, William and James Christy, Daniel 
Miller, John Elliot, Edward McConnel, William McCallister, 
and John Nicholson. 

Fearing that the savages would murder men engaged in 
harvesting farther up the valley, they endeavored to inter- 
cept them by crossing through Bigham's Gap early on 
Monday morning. They had no sooner entered the valley 
than they discovered traces of the enemy. Houses were 
pillaged, and some razed to the ground. At one place they 
had killed four hogs and a number of fowls, which they had 
roasted by a fire, fared sumptuously and dined leisurely. 
At Graham's there were unmistakable signs that the}' had 
been joined by another party, and that the entire force must 
number at least twenty -five Indians. From their tracks, too, 
it was evident that they had crossed the Tuscarora Mount- 
ain by way of Run Gap. The dread to encounter such a 
force would have deterred almost any small body of men ; 
but the Robinsons, who appeared to be leaders of the party, 
were bold, resolute backwoodsmen, inured to hardships, toil, 
and danger, and, without taking time to reflect, or even de- 
bate, upon the probability of being attacked by the enemy 
from ambuscade, they pushed forward rapidly to overtake 
the savages. 

At the cross-roads, near Buffalo Creek, the savages fired 
upon the party from an ambuscade of brush, and killed 
five. William Robinson was shot in the abdomen with 
buckshot ; still he managed to follow Buffalo Creek for half 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 76 

a mile. John Elliot, a mere lad of seventeen, discharged 
his rifle at an Indian, and then ran. The Indian pursued 
him, but, fearing the boy would get off, he dropped his rifle, 
and followed with tomahawk alone. Elliot, perceiving this, 
threw some powder into his rifle at random, inserted a ball 
in the muzzle, and pushed it in as far as he could with his 
finger ; then, suddenly turning around, he shot the Indian 
in the breast. The Indian gave a prolonged scream, and 
returned in the direction of his band. There is little doubt 
but that the Indian was killed; but, agreeably to their cus- 
tom, his companions either concealed the body or took it 
with them. 

Elliot went but a short distance before he overtook William 
Robinson, who was weltering in his blood upon the ground, 
and evidently in the agonies of death. He begged Elliot 
to carry him off, as he had a great horror of being scalped. 
Elliot told him it was utterly impossible for him to lift him 
off the ground, much less carry him. Robinson then said — 

"Take my gun, and save yourself. And if ever you have 
an opportunity to shoot an Indian with it, in ivar or peace, 
do so, for my sake." 

There is no record of the fact that he obeyed the dying 
injunction of his friend ; but he did with the rifle what was 
more glorious than killing ignorant savages; he carried it 
for five years in the Continental army, and battled" with it 
for the freedom of his country. How many of his Majesty's 
red-coats it riddled before the flag of freedom floated over 
the land, is only known to the God of battles. The body of 
Robinson was not found by the Indians. 

During the action Thomas Robinson stood still, sheltered 
by a tree, until all his companions had fled. He fired a 
third time, in the act of which two or three Indians fired, 
and a bullet shattered his right arm. He then attempted 
to escape, but was hotly pursued by the Indians, one of 
whom shot him through the side while in the act of stooping 
to pass a log. He was found scalped and most shockingly 
mutilated. John Graham died while sitting upon a log, a 



74 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

short distance from the scene of action. Charles Elliot and 
McConnel escaped, and crossed Buffalo Creek, but they were 
overtaken and shot just as they were in the act of ascending 
the bank. Their bodies were found in the creek. 

These bloody murders caused the greatest alarm in the 
neighborhood. The Indians, flushed with success, mani- 
fested no disposition to leave ; and the inhabitants of the 
sparsely-settled country fled toward the lower end of Sher- 
man's Valley, leaving all behind them. A party of forty 
men, armed and organized and well-disciplined, marched 
in the direction of the Juniata for the purpose of burying 
the dead and slaying the Indians ; but when they came to 
Buffalo Creek, they were so terrified at the sight of the 
slaughtered whites and probably exaggerated stories of the 
strength of the enemy, that the commander ordered a re- 
turn. He called it 'prudent to retire ; some of his men called 
it cowardly. The name of the valiant captain could not be 
ascertained. 

Captain Dunning went up the valley from Carlisle with 
a posse, determined to overtake and punish the savages if 
possible. Before his arrival, however, some five or six men 
conceived the rash idea of giving the Indians battle, and 
attacked them while in a barn. The attack was an ex- 
ceedingly ill-judged affair, for but few Indians were wound- 
ed, and none killed. They bounded out with great fury, 
and shot the entire party but one, who managed to escape. 
Those who were killed were Alexander Logan and his son 
John, Charles Coyle, and William Hamilton. Bartholomew 
Davis made his escape, and at Logan's house overtook Cap- 
tain Dunning and his command. Judging that the Indians 
would visit Logan's for plunder. Captain Dunning ambus- 
caded his men, and in a very short time the savages came, 
boldly, and entirely unconscious of impending danger. They 
were greeted by a volley from Dunning's men, and but a 
short engagement followed. Three or four Indians fell at 
the first fire; and the rest, dismayed, fled in consternation 
toward the mountain, and were not pursued. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 75 

Thus it will be perceived that a large number of most 
cruel and cold-blooded murders were committed by these 
marauders before they were checked, simply because in 
treachery and cunning the white men could not cope with 
them. 



76 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER VI. 

TUSCAEORA VALLEY — ITS EARLY SETTLERS — ITS MOUNDS AND ITS 
FORTS — MASSACRES, ETC. 

^USCARORA PATH VALLEY, as it was formerly 
^J , called, is one of the most fertile and beautifnl within 
^^ the Juniata range. It embraces an extent of probably 
thirty miles in length, beginning in Franklin county, and 
ending at the river at Perrysville, in Juniata county. The 
name of " Path " was given to it in consequence of the old 
western Indian path running through it nearly its entire 
length. 

Tuscarora, in its day, must have been a famous place for 
the Indians. Its great natural advantages, and the abun- 
dance of game it contained, must alone have rendered it an 
attractive place, independent of the fact that it was the regu- 
lar highway between the East and the West, where the war- 
rior, the politician, and the loafer, could lie in the 

" Umbrageous grots and caves of cool recess," 
before the wigwam door, and hear from travellers all the 
news astir M^orthy of their profound attention. 

Tradition, however, speaks of battles among them; for 
they would fight among themselves, and that, too, with all 
the relentless fury that characterized their warfare with the 
whites. But of these battles said to be fought in the valley 
the tradition is so vague and unsatisfactory that we omit any 
further mention of them. 

There are two mounds in the valley, — one of them near 
its head, tlie other some twelve or fourteen miles from its 
mouth, at or near a place, we believe, now called Academia. 
Some persons who examined this mound about twenty years 
ago tried to make it appear that it had been enclosed in a 
fortification, as they averred that they had discovered frag- 



HISTOKY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 77 

ments of a wall. This was probably a wrong conclusion, as 
a burial-place would not likelj^ bo within a fortification. If 
the mound was once enclosed within a wall for protection, it 
was an act that stands without a parallel in Indian history. 

Near the lower mound is an academy; and during the 
last ten years the students used their leisure hours in ex- 
huming the bones and searching for relics, so that by this 
time, probably, but a mere visible trace of it is left. 

The first settlers in Tuscarora were Samuel Bigham, Rob- 
ert Hagg, and James and John Grey, — all Scotch. They 
came from Cumberland county about the year 1749, or prob- 
ably 1750. They were in search of a location for permanent 
settlement. The valley pleased them so well that they im- 
mediately staked out farms; and, notwithstanding the In- 
dians of the valley treated them with apparent hospitality, 
they took the precaution to build themselves a fort for de- 
fence, which was named Bigham's Fort. By the year 1754 
several other persons had settled in Tuscarora, among them 
George Woods and a man named Innis. 

Some time in the spring of 1756, John Grey and Innis 
went to Carlisle with pack-horses, for the purpose of pro- 
curing groceries. On their return, while descending the 
mountain, in a very narrow defile, Grey's horse, frightened 
at a bear which crossed the road, became unmanageable and 
threw him off". Innis, anxious to see his wife and family, 
went on ; but Grey was detained for nearly two hours in 
righting his pack. As far as his own personal safety was 
concerned, the detention was a providential one, for he just 
reached the fort in time to see the last of it consumed. Every 
person in it had either been massacred or taken prisoners 
by the Indians. He examined the charred remains of the 
bodies inside of the fort, but he could find none that he 
could bring himself to believe were those of his family. It 
subsequently appeared that his wife and his only daughter, 
three years of age, George Woods, Innis's wife and three 
children, and a number of others, had been carried into 
captivity. They were taken across the Alleghany to the 



78 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

old Indian town of Kittaning, and from thence to Fort Du- 
quesne, where they were delivered over to the French. 

Woods was a remarkable man, and lived to a good old 
age, and figured somewhat extensively afterward in the his- 
tory of both Bedford and Alleghany counties. He took his 
captivity very little to heart, and even went so far as to pro- 
pose marriage to Mrs. Grey while they were both prisoners 
in the fort. 

The French commander, in apportioning out the prison- 
ers, gave AVoods to an old Indian named John Hutson, who 
removed him to his own wigwam. But George proving 
neither useful nor ornamental to Hutson's establishment^ 
and as there was no probability of any of his friends paying 
a ransom for him — inasmuch as he had neither kith nor kin 
— he opened negotiations with George to let him off. The 
conditions made and entered into between the two were that 
the aforesaid George Woods should give to the aforesaid John 
Hutson an annuity of ten pounds of tobacco, until death 
should terminate the existence of either of the parties named. 
This contract was fulfilled until the massacre of the Bedford 
scout, when Harry Woods, a lieutenant of the scout, and son 
of George Woods, recognised among the most active of the 
savages the son of John Hutson, who used to accompany 
his father to Bedford, where Harry Woods had often seen 
him. It is hardly necessary to add that old Hutson never 
called upon Woods after that for his ransom annuity. 

Woods was a surveyor by profession, and assisted in lay- 
ing out the city of Pittsburg, one of the principal streets of 
which bears his name, or, at least, was named after him, 
notwithstanding it is called "Wood" instead of Woods 
street. 

Mr. AVoods, after he removed to Bedford, became a useful 
and influential citizen. He followed his profession, and most 
of the original surveys in the upper end of the Juniata Val- 
ley were made by him. He reared a large family, and his 
descendants are still living. One of his daughters was mar- 
ried to Ross, who was once a candidate for the office of gov- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 79 

ernor of the State. He lived to a good old age, and died 
amid the deep regrets of a most extended circle of acquaint- 
ances. 

Mrs. Grey and her daughter were given to some Indians, 
who took them to Canada. In the ensuing fall John Grey 
joined Colonel Armstrong's expedition against Kittaning, in 
hopes of recapturing, or at least gaining some intelligence 
of, his family. Failing to do this, he returned home, broken 
in health and spirits, made his will, and died. The will 
divided the farm between his wife and daughter, in case 
they returned from captivity. If the daughter did not re- 
turn, a sister was to have her half. 

About a year after the fort was burnt, Mrs. Grey, through 
the connivance of some traders, managed to escape from 
bondage, and reached her home in safet}^, but, unfortunately, 
was compelled to leave her daughter behind her. She proved 
her husband's will and took charge of the property. The 
treaty of 1764 brought a large number of captive children 
to Philadelphia to be recognized and claimed by their friends. 
Mrs. Grey attended, in hopes of finding her child ; but she 
was unsuccessful. There remained one child unclaimed, 
about the same age as Mrs. Grey's; and some person, who 
evidently knew the provisions of the will, hinted to her the 
propriety of taking the child to save the property. She did 
so, and in the year 1789, the heirs of the sister, having re- 
ceived some information as to the identity of the child, 
brought suit for the land. The trial was a novel one, and 
lasted from 1789 to 1834, a period of forty-five years, wdien 
it was decided in favor of the heirs and against the captive. 
Innis remained among the Indians until the treaty. His 
wife escaped a short time previous. Two of her children 
she recovered in Philadelphia, but a third had been drowned 
by the savages on their way to some place in Canada. By 
the exposure it became sick and very weak, and, to rid 
themselves of any further trouble with it, they put it under 
the ice. When the captive children were at Philadelphia, 
some person had taken one of Innis's, and he had consider- 



80 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

able difficulty to recover it. Had it not been for a private 
mark by which he proved it, the person who had it in charge 
would probably never have surrendered it. 

The Indians of Tuscarora, before the French war, were on 
terms of great intimacy with the whites. They used to meet 
at the fort, and shoot mark, and, when out of lead, would go 
to the mouth of the valley, and return with lead ore, almost 
pure. Lead was a valuable article, and difficult to transport; 
hence the settlers were anxious to discover the location of the 
mine. Many a warrior was feasted and liquored until he 
was blind drunk, under a promise of divulging the precise 
whereabouts of the lead mine. Its discovery, if it contained 
any quantity of ore, would have realized any man a sj^eedy 
fortune in those days ; but, in spite of Indian promises and 
the most thorough search for years, the lead mines of Tus- 
carora were never found, and probably never will be until it 
is occupied by another race of cunning Indians. 

The fort burnt down in 1756 was rebuilt some four years 
afterward, through the exertions of Ralph Sterrit, an old 
Indian trader. His son William was born in Bigham's 
Fort, and was the first white child born in Tuscarora Valley. 
At the time of burning the first fort, Sterrit was absent with 
his family. 

It is related of Ralph Sterrit, that, one day, while sitting 
outside of the second fort, a wayworn Indian came along, 
who was hungry, thirsty, and fatigued. Sterrit was a hu- 
mane man, and called the savage in, gave him bread and 
meat, a drink of rum, and some tobacco, and sent him on 
his way rejoicing. 

The circumstance had entirely passed out of Sterrit's 
mind, when, one night in the spring of 1703, when the In- 
dians had again commenced hostilities, the inmates of the 
fort were alarmed by a noise at the gate. Sterrit looked out, 
and by the light of the moon discovered that it was an In- 
dian. The alarm was spread, and some of the more impetu- 
ous were for shooting him down as a spy. Sterrit, more 
cool than the others, demanded of the Indian his business. 



HISTOKY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 81 

The Indian, in few words, reminded him of the circumstance 
above narrated, and for the hospitality extended to him he 
had come to warn the white man of impending danger. He 
said that the Indians were as "plenty as pigeons in the 
woods," and that even then they had entered the valley, and, 
before another moon, would be at the fort, carrying with 
them the firm determination to murder, scalp, and burn all 
the whites in their path. The alarm was sounded, and it 
was soon determined, in consequence of the weakness of 
the fort, to abandon it. Nearly all the settlers of the valley 
were in it; but the number stated by the savage completely 
overaw^ed them, so that they set to work immediately pack- 
ing upon horses their most valuable effects, and long before 
daylight were on their way to Cumberland county. 

The Indians came next night, and, after reconnoitering 
for a long time, approached the fort, which, much to their 
astonishment, they found evacuated. However, to show the 
settlers that they had been there, they burnt down the 
fort, and, on a cleared piece of ground in front of it, they 
laid across the path a war-club painted red — a declaration 
of war to the death against the whites. 

The benevolent act of Sterrit, in relieving the weary and 
hungry Indian, was the means of saving the lives of eighty 
persons. 



82 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 



CHAPTER VII. 

FORT GRANVILLE — OLD INDIAN TOWN — THE EARLY SETTLERS — CAP- 
TAIN JACOBS ASSAULT ON AND CAPTURE OF THE FORT. 

PREVIOUS to the settlement by the whites, the flat on 
which the eastern part of Lewistown now stands was 
an Indian town of considerable importance. It was 
the outlet of a large and fertile valley, through^ which ran 
a northwestern Indian path, and in which dwelt five or six 
tribes, who found this the natural outlet to the Juniata. The 
council-house stood upon the east side of the creek, near its 
mouth, and the line of wigwams stretched toward the north. 

The first white settlers in this neighborhood came from 
the Conecocheague, by way of Aughwick. They consisted 
of Arthur Buchanan and his two sons, and three other fam- 
ilies, all Scotch-Irish. Buchanan was a man of great energy, 
and very fond of roving in the woods, far from the haunts 
of men. He was the master-spirit of the party, and with 
great self-reliance pitched his tent opposite the Indian village, 
on the west bank of the creek. He then called upon the 
Indians, and signified his intention to purchase land. They 
were at first unwilling to sell ; but Captain Jacobs, (as 
Buchanan christened the chief, in consequence of his close 
resemblance to a burly German in Cumberland county,) who 
was the head chief, having been liberally plied with liquor, 
decided that Buchanan should have the much-coveted land. 
What was paid for it never transpired, but it is more than 
probable that the remainder of the contents of Buchanan's 
rum-keg, a few trinkets, and some tobacco, made him owner 
of the soil. This was in 1754. 

Captain Jacobs had always professed great friendship to- 
ward the British colonists; but he was among the very first 
won over by the French. He became very much dissatisfied 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 83 

with Buchanan, more especially as the latter had induced a 
number of his friends and acquaintances to come there and 
settle. By this means the lands of Jacobs were encroached 
upon, which greatly roused his temper; and one day, with- 
out deigning to give an explanation of any kind, the In- 
dians destroyed their town and left. This was a movement 
the settlers did not understand ; neither did they like it, for 
it seemed to forbode no good. After a very brief consulta- 
tion among them, they resolved forthwith to build a fort for 
protection. They had for a time noticed a growing coldness 
on the part Jacobs and his warriors, and, fearful that they 
might come down the valley, joined by other bands, and mas- 
sacre the people, Fort Granville was erected with as much des- 
patch as possible. It was located about a mile above Lewis- 
town, in order to be near a large spring. Contrary to ex- 
pectations, the Indians did not come, and things generally 
prospered about Fort Granville settlement during the sum- 
mer and winter of 1755. In the spring of 1756 the Indians 
made their appearance in Kishicoquillas Valley, in consid- 
erable numbers ; and parties of roving tribes in search of 
scalps and plunder, emboldened by the success of the French 
and Indians the years previous, sometimes came down to 
the mouth of the creek, but, unable to ascertain the power 
of resistance concentrated within the fort, they never made 
an attack upon it. These incursions, however, became so 
frequent, that in the summer of 1756 the settlers only left 
the fort when necessity demanded it. Finally, succor reached 
them in July. The government dispatched Lieutenant 
Armstrong from Cumberland county with a militia force to 
protect them while engaged in taking in their harvest, and, 
directly after his arrival, hearing of the exposed condition 
of the people in Tuscarora, Armstrong sent a portion of his 
command, with- Lieutenant Faulkner, in order to guard them 
while reaping their grain. 

In the absence of the latter, on or about the 22d of July, 
(the Indians having ascertained the strength of the garrison,) 
some sixty or seventy warriors, painted and equipped for 



84 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

battle, appeared before the fort and insolently challenged the 
settlers to combat. The commander pretended to treat the 
challenge with contempt, though in truth he was consider- 
ably alarmed at the prospect of an attack. The Indians 
fired at one man, and wounded him. He happened to be 
outside, but got into the fort without sustaining any serious 
injury. The Indians divided themselves into small parties 
and started off in different directions. One of these parties 
killed a man named Baskins, a short distance from the river, 
burnt his house, and carried his wife and children into cap- 
tivity. Another party took Hugh Carrol and his family 
prisoners. 

On the 30th of July, Captain Edward Ward had command 
of Fort Granville, with a company regularly enlisted and in 
the pay of tlie province. He went, with all his men but 
twenty-four, to Sherman's A^alley, to protect the settlers 
while harvesting. The enemy soon ascertained this, and on 
the first of August, according to the afiidavit of John Hogan, 
then and there taken prisoner, (Colonial Records, vol. vii. p. 
561,) one hundred Indians and fifty Frenchmen made an 
attack upon the fort. They assaulted the works during the 
entire afternoon and part of the night without gaining any 
advantage. About midnight the enemy got below the bank 
of the river, and by a deep ravine they approached close 
enough to the fort to set fire to it before they were observed. 
The fire soon spread, and through an aperture made the 
Indians shot Lieutenant Armstrong, and wounded some two 
or three others who were endeavoring to put out the fire. 
The French commander ordered a suspension of hostilities, 
and offered quarter to all who would surrender, on several 
occasions ; but Armstrong would not surrender on any con- 
dition. He was certainly a brave man, and held out nobly 
almost against hope. Peter Walker, who was in the fort at 
the time and taken prisoner, after his escape from Kittaning 
gave an account of the capture of the fort to General John 
Armstrong. He said that "of the enemy not less than one 
hundred and twenty returned, all in health, except one 



HISTORY OF THE JJJNIATA VALLEY. 85 

Frenchman, shot through the shoulder by Lieutenant Arm- 
strong, a little before his death, as the Frenchman was 
erecting his body out of the hollow to throw pine-knots on 
the fire made against the fort ; and of this number there 
were about a dozen of French, who had for their interpreter 
one McDowell, a Scotchman." 

There appears to be a discrepancy between the statements 
of Hogan and Walker in regard to the number engaged in 
the assault, but it is quite likely that the latter's estimate is 
correct. 

General Armstrong, in his letter to Robert Hunter Morris, 
goes on to say : — 

This McDowell told Walker they designed ver}^ soon to attack 
Fort Shirley with four hundred men. Captain Jacobs said he 
could take any fort that would catch fire, and would make peace 
with the English when they had learned him to make gunpowder. 
McDowell told Walker they had two Indians killed in the en- 
gagement; but Captains Armstrong and Ward, whom I ordered 
on their march to Fort Shirley to examine every thing at Gran- 
ville and send a list of what remained among the ruins, assure 
me that they found some parts of eight of the enemy burnt, in 
two different places, the joints of them being scarcely separated; 
and part of their shirts found, through which there were bullet- 
holes. To secrete these from the prisoners was doubtless the 
reason why the French officer marched our people some distance 
from the fort before he gave orders to burn the barracks, &c. 
Walker says that some of the Germans flagged very much on 
the second day, and that the lieutenant behaved with the great- 
est bravery to the last, despising all the terrors and threats of 
the enemy whereby they often urged him to surrender. Though 
he had been near two days without water, but little ammunition 
left, the fort on fire, and the enemy situate within twelve or four- 
teen yards of the fort, under the natural bank, he was as far from 
yielding as when at first attacked. A Frenchman in our service, 
fearful of being burned up, asked leave of the lieutenant to treat 
with his countrymen in the French language. The lieutenant 
answered, " The first word of French you speak in this engage- 
ment, I'll blow your brains out ! " telling his men to hold out 



86 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

bravely, for the flame was falling, and he would soon have it ex- 
tinguished; but he soon after received the fatal ball. Col. Rec, 
vol. vii. p. 232. , 

Directly after Armstrong fell, a man named Turner opened 
the gates and admitted the enemy. A soldier named Bran- 
don, who had been shot through the knee, approached the 
French, told them he was a Roman Catholic, and would go 
with them. His faith, how^ever, availed him little; for, as 
soon as it w^as discovered that he was not in marching con- 
dition, one of the Indians clove his skull with a tomahawk. 

The soldiers, who loved their lieutenant, asked permission 
to bury him ; but the inhuman French officer refused, al- 
though they offered to do it in a very few minutes where 
they had raised clay to stay the progress of the flames. 

The Indians were under the command of Captain Jacobs 
and Shingas, but the name of the gallant French officer has 
not been preserved. 

The prisoners taken were twenty-two soldiers, three women, 
and several children. For fear of being overtaken by the 
provincial forces, they made forced marches to Kittaning. 
When they arrived there, they pitched upon Turner to make 
a terrible example of. In front of the council-house they 
planted a stake painted black, and to this they tied him; 
and, after having heated several old gun-barrels red-hot, 
they danced around him, and, every minute or two, seared 
and burned his flesh. Without knowing but what such 
might be their own fate, the prisoners were compelled to 
look at the heart-rending sight, and listen to the shrieks and 
groans of the victim, without daring to utter a word. After 
tormenting him almost to death, the Indians scalped him, 
and then held up an Indian lad, who ended his sufferings 
by laying open his skull with a hatchet. 

Some of the prisoners made their escape, and others were 
restored to their friends ; but some few of the soldiers were 
never heard of again, having probably shared the fate of 
Turner. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 87 

One of the prisoners, named Girty, returned in a wounded 
condition. When he escaped, he was followed by two In- 
dians to the head-quarters of Blacklick, where they attempted 
to re-capture him ; but in the fight that followed he slew one 
of the Indians, and the other ran. He scalped the one he 
killed, and took his scalp to Aughwick. The women and 
children were recovered, by the first exchange of prisoners 
that took place, in 1757. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ORGANIZATION OF MIFFLIN COUNTY — DISPUTE WITH HUNTINGDON 
COUNTY ABOUT THE BOUNDARY LINE — RIOT IN LEWISTOWN, ETC 

[Note. — It was not the author's original intention to publish 
anything of modern occurrence in the Juniata Valley, but to con- 
fine himself exclusively to its early history; but several friends 
in Lewistown made a particular request that we should insert 
an account of the dispute arising from the boundary question, 
and the riot of 1791. The latter has been repeatedly published. 
Still, as it occurred sixty-four years ago, and few, if any, living 
witnesses of the occurrence are to be found, it may be as well to 
preserve the record.] 

HORTLY after Mifflin count}^ w\as formed, in 1789, an 
attempt was made to run the boundary line, — a pro- 
ceeding which gave rise to great excitement and came 
very near ending in riot and bloodshed. The bone of con- 
tention was a strip of disputed territory claimed by both 
Huntingdon and Mifflin counties ; and ^XG are under the im- 
pression that a majority of those residing in the territory in 
dispute favored the Mifflin county cause. They were mostly 
Irish; and, since the wars were over and no enemy to fight, 
were ever ready, w^th true Irish hospitality, to take a brush 
with their neighbors. Accordingly, when the sheriff of 
Huntingdon came into the disputed territory to serve a pro- 
cess upon a man, a party congregated at an Irish tavern, and 
lying in wait for the sheriff, arrested and carried him to 
Lewistown and committed him to jail. He sued out a habeas 
corpus, and the judge discharged him. Filled Avith wrath, 
the sheriff went liome swearing vengeance. He soon sum- 
moned a posse in Huntingdon, for the avowed purpose of 
taking his man at all hazards, and proceeded to the disputed 
territory. The people, aware of his coming, fired signal 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 91 

guns, and soon met in great numbers. The sheriff and his 
posse fortunately took a different route, which alone pre- 
vented riot and bloodshed. The boundary question was soon 
after settled amicably. 

The riot of 1791, however, was a more serious affair. It 
will be remembered that in those days the military spirit 
in the Juniata Valley ran very high, though we are free to 
acknowledge that it has sadly degenerated since then. A 
gentleman named Bryson had been appointed an Associate 
Judge by the governor. Previous to his appointment, he 
held the office of Brigade Inspector ; and, in his official 
capacity, refused to commission two colonels elected by their 
regiments, but in their stead commissioned two men of his 
own selection. This he had a right to do under the existing 
militia law; nevertheless, the men composing the regiments 
looked upon it as a most unwarranted assumption of power 
in thus setting at defiance the expressed will of the majority, 
and they resolved that Judge Bryson should not enjoy his 
office. The following copy of a letter published in a paper 
in York, Pennsylvania, from the district attorney, is a full 
history of the case : 

On Monday, the 12th of September, 1791, the Hon, W. Brown, 
James Bryson, and James Armstrong, Esquires, met in the fore- 
noon, in order to open the court and proceed to business ; but 
Thomas Beale, Esq., one of the associate judges, not having ar- 
rived, their honors waited until three o'clock in the afternoon; 
at which time he arrived, and was requested to proceed with 
them and the officers of the court to the court-house. He de- 
clined going, and the procession moved on to the court-house, 
where the judges' commissions were read, the court opened, and 
the officers and the attorneys of the court sworn in, and the 
court adjourned till ten o'clock next morning. 

About nine o'clock, while preparing business to lay before the 
grand-jury, I received information that a large body of men were 
assembled below the Long Narrows, at David Jordan's tavern, 
on the Juniata, and were armed with guns, swords, and pistols, 
with an avowed intention to proceed to Lewistown, and seize 
Judge Bryson on the bench, and drag him from his seat, and 



92 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

march him off before them, and otherwise ill-treat him. This 
information was instantly communicated to Messrs. Brown, 
Bryson, and Armstrong, the judges, who agreed with me that 

Samuel Edminton, Esq., the prothonotary, Judge Beale, 

Stewart, Esq., Bell, Esq., should, with George Wilson, 

Esq., the sheriff of Mifflin county, proceed and meet the rioters. 
And the sheriff was commanded to inquire of them their object 
and intention; and, if hostile, to order them to disperse, and tell 
them that the court was not alarmed at their proceedings. 

Two hours after this the court opened, and a grand-jury was 
impannelled. A fife was heard playing, and some guns fired, 
and immediately the mob appeared, marching toward the court- 
house, with three men on horseback in front, having the gentle- 
men that had been sent to meet them under guard in the rear; 
all of whom, on their arrival at Lewistown, they permitted to 
go at large, except the sheriff, whom four of their number kept 
a guard over. The court ordered me, as the representative of 
the commonwealth, to go and meet them, remonstrate against 
their proceedings, and warn them of their danger; which order 
was obeyed. But all endeavors were in vain, the mob crying 
out, " March on ! march on ! draw your sword on him! ride over 
him !" I seized the reins of the bridle that the principal com- 
mander held, viz., Wilson, Esq., brother of the sheriflf 

aforesaid, who was well mounted and well dressed, with a sword, 
and, I think, two pistols belted around him; a cocked-hat, and 
one or two feathers in it. He said he would not desist, but at 
all events proceed and take Judge Bryson off the bench, and 
march him down to the Narrows, to the judge's farm, and make 
him sign a written paper that he would never sit there as a judge 
again. 

The mob still crying out, "March on ! march on !" he drew his 
sword, and told me he must hurt me unless I would let go the 
reins. The crowd pushed forward and nearly pressed me down ; 
one of them, as I learned afterward, a nephew of Judge Beale, 
presented his pistol at my breast, with a full determination to shoot 
me. I let the reins go, and walked before them until I arrived 
at the stairs on the outside of the court-house, when Judge Arm- 
strong met me, and said, "Since nothing else will do, let us de- 
fend the stairs." We instantly ascended, and Mr. Hamilton, and 
the gentlemen of the bar, and many citizens ; and the rioters, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 93 

headed by William Wilson, Colonel Walker, and Colonel Holt, 
came forward, and the general cry was, "March on, damn you ; 
proceed and take him !" Judge Armstrong replied, "You damned 
rascals, come on ; we will defend the court and ourselves ; and 
before you shall take Judge Bryson you shall kill me and many 
others, which seems to be your intention, and which you may 
do !" At this awful moment, one Holt seized Judge Armstrong 
by the arm with intent to pull him down the stairs, but he extri- 
cated himself. Holt's brother then got a drawn sword and put 
it into his hands, and damned him to run the rascal through ; 
and Wilson drew his sword on me with great rage, and young 
Beale his sword, and cocked his pistol, and presented it. I told 
them they might kill me, but the judge they could not, nor should 
they take him ; and the words "fire away !" shouted through the 
mob. I put my hand on his shoulder, and begged him to con- 
sider where he was, who I was, and reflect for a moment. I told 
him to withdraw the men, and appoint any two or three of the 
most respectable of his people to meet me in half an hour and 
try to settle the dispute. He agreed, and with difficulty got 
them away from the court-housfe. Mr. Hamilton then went with 
me to Mr. Alexander's tavern, and in Wilson and Walker came, 
and also Sterrett ; who I soon discovered to be their chief coun- 
sellor. 

Proposals were made by me that they should return home, 
offer no insult to Judge Bryson or the court, and prefer to the 
governor a decent petition, stating their grievances, (if they had 
any,) that might be laid before the legislature ; and that, in the 
mean time, the judge should not sit on the bench in this court. 
They seemed agreed, and our mutual honor to be pledged ; but 
Sterrett, who pretended not to be concerned, stated that great de- 
lay would take place, that injuries had been received which de- 
manded instant redress, and objected to the power of the 
governor as to certain points proposed. At this moment young 
Beale and Holt came up, the former with arms, and insisted on 
Wilson's joining them, and broke up the conference. I followed, 
and on the field, among the rioters, told Wilson, "Your object 
is that Judge Bryson leave the bench and not sit on it this 
court." He and Walker said "Yes." "Will j'ou promise to 
disperse and go home, and offer him no insult ?" He said, "Yes ;" 



94 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

and our mutual honor was then pledged for the performance of 
this agreement. 

Mr. Hamilton proceeded to the court, told the judge, and he 
left his seat and retired. I scarce had arrived until the fife be- 
gan to play, and the whole of the rioters came on to the court- 
house, then headed by Wilson. I met them at the foot of the 
stairs, and told them the judge was gone, in pursuance of the 
agreement, and charged them with a breach of the word and 
forfeiture of honor ; and Walker said it was so, but he could not 
prevail on them. Wilson said he would have the judge, and 
attempted going up the stairs. I prevented him, and told him 
he should not, unless he took off his military accoutrements. 
He said he had an address to present, and complied with my re- 
quest, and presented it, signed "The People." Young Beale, at 
the moment I was contending with Wilson, cocked and pre- 
sented his pistol at my breast, and insisted that Wilson and all 
of them should go ; but on my offering to decide it by combat 
with him, he declined it ; and by this means they went off swear- 
ing, and said that they were out-generalled. 

The next day. Colonel M'Farland, with his regiment, came 
down and offered to defend the court, and addressed it; the 
court answered, and stated that there was no occasion, and 
thanked him. 

Judge Bryson read a paper, stating the ill-treatment he received, 
and mentioned that no fear of danger prevented him from taking 
and keeping his seat ; but that he understood an engagement had 
been entered into by his friends that he should not, and on that 
account only he was prevented. The court adjourned until two 
o'clock that day, and were proceeding to open it, with the sheriff, 
coroner, and constable in front, when they observed that Judge 
Beale was at the house of one Con. They halted, and requested 
the sheriff to wait on him and request him to walk with them. 
He returned, and said the judge would not walk or sit with 
Bryson, and addressed Judge Bryson with warmth, who replied 
to it in a becoming manner. The sheriff struck at him, and 
kicked also. Judge Armstrong seized the sheriff, and commanded 
the peace, and took the sheriff's rod from him; the coroner took 
his place, and the sheriff was brought up before the court. I 
moved he might be committed to gaol; and his mittimus being 
written and signed, the court ordered the coroner and gaoler to 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 95 

take him, and he submitted. The court adjourned. After night 
the drum beat, and Holt collected about seventy men, who re- 
peatedly huzzaed, crying out "liberty or death;" and he offered 
to rescue the sheriff, but the sheriff refused. At ten o'clock at 
night I was informed expresses were sent down the Narrows, to 
collect men to rescue the sheriff, and Major Edmiston informed 
me he was sorry for his conduct, and offered to beg the court's 
pardon and to enter into recognisance. I communicated this to 
Judges Brown and Armstrong, and requested they would write 
to the gaoler to permit him to come down. They did, and the 
sheriff came with Major Edmiston, begged pardon of every 
member of the court but Judge Bryson, who was not present, 
and entered into recognisance to appear at next sessions. 

The next day near three hundred were assembled below the 
Narrows, and I prevailed on some gentlemen to go down and 
disperse them ; and upon being assured the sheriff was out of 
gaol, they returned to their respective homes, and the court have 
finished all business. Nothing further requiring the attendance 
of the grand-jury, the court dismissed them and broke up. I 
must not omit to inform that Judge Beale had declared, during 
the riot, in court, that he would not sit on the bench with Judge 
Bryson, and that both he and said Stewart appeared to counte- 
nance the rioters, and are deeply concerned. 

I must now close the narrative with saying that, owing to the 
spirit and firmness of Judge Armstrong and the whole of the 
bar, I was enabled to avert the dreadful blow aimed at Judge 
Bryson, and to keep order and subordination in court; and un- 
less the most vigorous measures are exerted soon, it will be im- 
possible ever to support the laws of the State in that county, or 
punish those who dare transgress. 

The exise law is execrated by the banditti; and, from every 
information, I expect the collection of the revenue will be op- 
posed. 

I am happy to add, the dispute, which originated by a mis- 
take, between Huntingdon and Mifflin counties, is happily 
closed in the most amicable manner, without any posecution in 
Mifflin. 

I am, sir, your most obedient, 

John Clark, Dy. St. Attorney. 

To Thomas Smith, Esq., President of the Court of Mifflin county. 



96 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

The following is another account of the affair, and evi- 
dently written by a friend of the offending judge: — 

Carlisle, September 21. 

At a period when the general voice of the people proclaims 
the excellence of the Federal Government, and the State of Penn- 
sylvania in particular is anticipating every blessing from a Con- 
stitution so conformable to it, an alarming sedition, together with 
a most daring turbulent temper, has unhappily manifested itself 
in the county of Mifflin. 

The Governor has lately appointed Samuel Bryson, Esquire, 
second Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of that 
county. This gentleman, having been Lieutenant of the county 
of Mifflin, had excited the determined enmity of two men who 
were ambitious of being colonels of militia, and against the 
commissioning of whom (as unfit persons) Mr. Bryson, as County 
Lieutentant, had made representations. Enraged at the pro- 
motion of Judge Bryson, and unhappily yielding to the impulse 
of the most unjustifiable passions, one William Wilson, brother 
to the sheriff of MifSin county, and one David Walker, levied a 
considerable force, and marched at the head of about forty armed 
men, with a fife playing, to Lewistown, with the avowed determ- 
ination to seize upon the person of Judge Bryson whilst on the 
bench, drag him from thence, oblige him to resign his commis- 
sion, and compel him to march many miles along the rugged 
Narrows of Juniata River. 

Secresy marked this unexampled treasonable riot. It was not 
known at Lewistown until about an hour before the insurgents 
appeared. Justice Stuart, who had been lately commissioned, 
and who is a ver}'- worthy man, had been imprisoned in the 
morning by four men who belonged to the party of rioters. They 
attempted to make him engage his word that he would not give 
information; but he refused. Ignorant of the private movers of 
this daring and turbulent procedure, it was agreed by Judges 
Brown and Armstrong, and other gentlemen, to request the sheriff 
of the county and Judge Beale, who were presumed to have in- 
fluence over them, together with the prothonotary of the county, 
to represent the illegality and imprudence of their conduct, 
and prevail on them if possible, to return. No advantage has 
been derived from this step. Mr. Edmiston, the prothonotary, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 97 

was insulted; the sheriff was taken into a mock imprisonment; 
and Judge Beale soon after adopted a part which evinced that 
little real exertion could have been expected from him in quiet- 
ing this disturbance. 

The court was sitting when this armed force, levying war against 
the State, with a fife playing, marched resolutely forward. At 
this juncture Judge Bryson asked Judge Beale if it was not likely 
they would stop ; to which the other replied that they never 
would whilst such a rascal sat upon the bench. 

Mr. Clark and Mr. Hamilton, two attorneys of the court, at 
the desire of some of the judges, remonstrated with Mr. Wilson, 
who was on horse-back and within a few paces of the court- 
house, at the head of the troops, respecting his conduct. Mr. 
Wilson was dressed in a military style, with a cockade in his hat, 
and was armed with a horseman's sword and pistols. He de- 
clared his intention was to oblige Mr. Bryson to resign his com- 
mission and go down the Narrows with him and his men. He 
was warned by the gentlemen of the danger of the attempt; he 
observed that nothing would divert him from his purpose, and 
immediately drew his sword and marched to storm the court- 
room, where Judge Armstrong and others were stationed at the 
door. The two gentlemen who had addressed Wilson ran to 
the steps in front of the force, where they found a number of 
persons on the stairs. The rioters followed, with a cry of " Lib- 
erty or Death!" Mr. Armstrong halloed out repeatedly, " Vil- 
lians, come on, but you shall first march over my dead body be- 
fore you enter." This resolution, seconded by the circumstance 
of the gentlemen above mentioned, and a number of other per- 
sons, keeping their ground on the stairs, (although once or twice 
some called to the rioters to fire,) seemed to stagger the resolu- 
tion of Wilson. At this moment a gentleman proposed to him 
that if he would disarm, he might have admittance into the 
court-room. To this he seemed immediately to accede. The 
troops were filed off a short distance. It was then agreed that 
a meeting should take place in half an hour with the leaders of 
the party. Messrs. Clark and Hamilton, with the assent of some 
members of the court, met Messrs. William Wilson, David Wal- 
ker, and W^illiam Sterrett, who appeared on behalf of the rioters. 
Entertaining hopes of preserving the person of Mr. Bryson from 
injury, it was thought prudent to promise, if the party would 
7 



98 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

disperse, that Mr. Bryson would not sit during that week on the 
bench. During this conference, Mr. Wilson offered no other 
charge against Mr. Bryson but what respected the militia com- 
missions for him and Mr. Walker; but it was not until after 
much discourse that the leaders of the troops could be convinced 
that an extorted resignation would not avail. When they saw 
the futility of this idea, it was long insisted that Mr. Bryson 
should go with them down the Narrows. 

Mr. Wilson, in contravention of the agreement, marched the 
troops to the court-house. In the meantime. Judge Bryson had 
sent for a horse and effected his escape. It was then Mr. Wil- 
liam Sterrett exclaimed, with an oath, " We are out-geueralled!" 

An address was presented by Mr. Wilson to the court, who 
went in unarmed, signed " The People." It was in the hand- 
writing, as is supposed, of Mr. Sterrett. It congratulated the 
other judges upon their appointments, but mentioned and avowed 
their design in coining armed to the court to force the dismission 
of Judge Bryson. Mr. Beale, one of the most active of the 
rioters, armed with a sword and pistols slung around him, wished 
to force his way into the court-room, but was prevented by Mr. 
Clark. Four armed men surrounded the person of the sheriff. 
Under this delusive imprisonment, all intercourse of conversa- 
tion with him was prohibited. In the evening, the rioters de- 
parted in a turbulent, straggling manner, generally intoxicated. 
At night, one Corran, who had been active in raising men, 
was drowned, together with his horse, in a mill-dam, about one 
mile and a half from the town. 

About twelve or one o'clock the next day, Judge Bryson re- 
turned. Soon afterward. Col. James McFarland, with about 
seventy militia on horseback, appeared in support of the court 
and the laws. At three o'clock, Judges Brown, Bryson, and 
Armstrong, preceded by the sheriff, prepared to open the court. 
The sheriff was sent with a message to Judge Beale, informing 
him that the judges waited for him to join them in proceed- 
ing to the court-house. His reply was that he would not go 
whilst Mr. Bryson was with them. The judges had not walked 
more than a few paces, followed by the attorneys and citizens, 
when the sheriff, with his rod of office in his liand, suddenly 
stopped, and demanded of Mr. Bryson if he had said any thing 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 99 

injurious of him. Mr. Bryson made a very moderate reply; 
notwithstanding, he was immediately assaulted by the sherifif, 
and received a kick in the same leg which had been shattered 
by a ball at the battle of Germantown. The sheriff was imme- 
diately taken into custody. The coroner received the sheriff's 
rod, and undertook to go before the judges to court. There the 
sheriff refused to give any recognisance for his appearance at the 
next court, and was therefore committed to jail. 

Colonel McFarland presented an address to the judges on be- 
half of himself and the militia under his command, mentioning 
his abhorrence of the proceedings which had taken place, and 
offering, at the hazard of their lives, to protect the court. To 
which the following answer was returned : — 

"The judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the county of 
Mifflin are very sensible of the laudable zeal of Colonel McFar- 
land and the militia now under arms, subject to his command, 
in support of the laws and government of Pennsylvania, and 
particularly for the purpose of protecting this court from injury 
and insult. They trust that the daring mob who, being armed, 
assembled yesterday and assaulted the court, threatening the 
lives of the members, are now too conscious of the magnitude 
of their offence and the spirit of the citizens of this county to 
repeat their attack. Measures are preparing to vindicate the 
dignity of our insulted laws, and to bring to a just punishment 
the atrocious offenders, and their abettors, who have brought 
disgrace upon the county and trampled upon the most sacred 
rights of the community. The court, therefore, sir, return you 
thanks for the support which you and the militia under your 
command have with so much alacrity brought to the aid of the 
administration of justice in this county ; but being of opinion 
that all danger from these infatuated men has ceased, we do not 
think it necessary that your attendance should be longer con- 
tinued." 

After which Judge Bryson, standing at the bar, spoke the fol- 
lowing words: — 

" Fellow-citizens : — It is not my intention to resume my seat 
on the bench during this term. I do not decline it from any 
apprehension of the mob who yesterday assaulted the court and 
marked me for their vengeance. Supported by my country, by 
every virtuous citizen, and a consciousness of my integrity, I 



100 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

have nothing to fear; but understanding that some gentlemen, 
anxious for my personal safety, entered into an engagement with 
the leaders of the banditti that I should not sit as judge during 
this court, my respect for these gentlemen is my sole and only 
motive for making this declaration." 

Colonel McFarland, after this, thanked the militia in the fol- 
lowing terms : — 

" Colonel McFarland returns his thanks to the militia of his 
regiments who now attend in support of the laws of their coun- 
try. He is particularly indebted to Captain Robert Johnston 
and Captain John Brown, for their extraordinary vigilance in 
collecting the men of their respective companies upon a notice 
given to them so late as last night after twelve o'clock. He has 
no doubt but that the same zeal which has distinguished the 
militia under his command upon this occasion will always be as 
honorably manifested, should this county ever be so unhappy 
as to be disgraced by a similar necessity." 

Soon after which, the militia, having been discharged by the 
court, returned home. 

The evening of the day was replete with alarms. One Holt, 
who thought he had cause of complaint respecting a militia 
commission, assembled a body of men to the amount of about 
forty. They paraded a considerable time with sound of drum. 
At length, at eight o'clock, they appeared before the prison-door, 
with an intention to break it and enlarge the sheriff. Mr. Ster- 
rett then appeared, and informed them that the sheriff thanked 
his friends for their intention to serve him, but this is not a 
proper period ; or words to that effect. 

About nine o'clock, several persons, having long applied to 
the sheriff without success, prevailed on him at length to give a 
recognisance to appear at the next court to answer for the assault 
and battery on Judge Bryson. Happily, the sheriff, in this in- 
stance, relinquished a system which was collecting new horrors 
and threatened to involve in new scenes of guilt a number of 
the inhabitants. Great numbers in Tuscarora Valley and its 
' vicinity prepared the following day to march and liberate the 
sheriff, and probably to demolish the court-house and jDrison. 
The news of his release arrived in time to stop the progress of 
those infatuated men, who appear to have lost sight of the social 
compact, and whose felicity seems to lie in scenes of tumult, 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 101 

disorder, and licentiousness. It is to be hoped, however, that 
government, when it comes to enforce the laws, will contemplate 
the ignorance and delusion of these unfortunate men, and that 
mercy will so far temper the prosecution as that it will not be 
extended to a capital charge; yet it is indispensably necessary 
that they be taught that genuine liberty consists in the power of 
doing every thing which is not prohibited by the laws, and that 
the exercise of an unbounded licentiousness which threatens the 
dissolution of society itself must receive a punishment in some 
degree commensurate to the greatness of the offence. 

How far Mr. Br^^son's representations to the governor against 
Messrs. Wilson, Walker, and Holt, have been founded in a just 
estimate of the characters of these men, cannot be elucidated 
here; but it would appear to afford the highest evidence of its 
propriety that they were the principals in this most unexampled 
riot. 



102 HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER IX. 

KISHICOQUILLAS VALLEY — THE SHAWNEE CHIEF KISHICOKELAS — 
THE MINGO CHIEF LOGAN. 

(^ MONG the many valley's composing the Juniata Val- 
7pk ley, or, indeed, among all the fine and productive 
^i valleys of the State, few, if any, can surpass Kishico- 
quillas. Its outlet is at Lewistown, from whence it stretches 
west a distance of nearly thirty miles, varying in breadth 
from two to four miles. 

After the treaty of Fort Stanwix, the whites returned to 
the neighborhood of Granville, and some of them commenced 
exploring the valley. The land was then included in what 
was termed the new purchase, and was in the market. The 
land-office was opened in 1709, and the first actual settler in 
the valley was Judge Brown. 

Old Kishicokelas was a Shawnee chief, on terms of friend- 
ship with the whites. With the Buchanans he was very in- 
timate, and gave them early intimation of the impending 
danger, which enabled them to escape. While the Dela- 
wares and most of his own tribe went over to the French in 
a body, Kishicokelas remained loyal to the proprietary gov- 
ernment; and, although they made him splendid offers at 
the time they corrupted Jacobs, he rejected them all, and 
declared that no earthly consideration could induce him to 
lift the hatchet against the sons of Onas. 

It is to be regretted that historians never made mention 
of Kishicokelas, except incidentally. He was the fast 
friend of the old chief Shickalemy, who resided at Fort 
Augusta, and it is probable that he was converted by some 
of the Moravian missionaries. He died in 1756, as appears 
by a letter directed to his sons, as follows : — 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 103 

" Philadelphia, June 13, 1756. 

"I am obliged to you for your letter by our good friend, John 
Shickcalamy. Your father's letter and present were received by 
the late Governor Hamilton, who acquainted me with it; and I 
intended, at a time when less engaged by public business, to have 
sent you my acknowledgments and answer. 

"I heartily condole with you on the loss of your aged father, 
and mingle my tears with yours, which however I would now 
have you wipe away with the handkerchief herewith sent. 

"As a testimony of love the proprietors and this government 
retain for the family of Kishycoquillas, you will be pleased to 
accept of the present which is delivered to John Shickcalamyfor /^^ <t 
your use. ' 

"May the Great Spirit confer on you health and every other , / 
blessing. Continue your afiection for the English and the good > 
people of this province, and you will always find them grateful jhiM^ 

"I am your assured friend, ^ / y (< 

"Robert H. Morris." 

Soon after the treaty at Alabama, — prol^ably in 1755, — 
settlers, who had heard of tlie beauty and fertility of Kishi- 
coquillas Valley, flocked fhither for the purpose of locating 
lands. Few locations, however, were effected, for the In- 
dians of the valley, with the exception of the chief Kishi- 
cokelas, and his immediate followers, were opposed to it, and 
threw every obstacle, short of downright murder, in the 
way of the new-comers. There is no positive evidence that 
any murders were committed in Kishicoquillas at that period, 
but the savages certainly did everything in their power to 
menace and harass the settlers, in order to induce them to 
relinquish the design of settling upon what they still con- 
sidered their lands. The following letter from Colonel 
Armstrong to Governor Morris gives some information of 
the trials these early settlers were subjected to : 

" Carlisle, May 26, 1755. 

" This day I received a letter from my brother, who is laying 

out lands for the settlers in the new purchase, giving an account 

of three Indians, very much painted, who last week robbed and 

drove off several settlers from the Valley of Kishicoquillas. 



104 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

One of the Indians, by his skulking position, seemed as if he 
designed secretly to have shot, but, the white man, discovering 
him, escaped. They took three horses, three or four guns, and 
some cash. 'Tis said they robbed another man up Juniata. 

" To-morrow I am to set out for Kishicoquillas, there to decide 
some controversies, and thence to proceed to Susquehanna, near 
Shamokin, where I expect to meet Conrad Weiser. If he is 
there, he may, by the assistance of the Shickcalamies, be of use 
in regard to those robberies. I am, sir, yours, &c., 

"John Armstrong." 

f Colonel Armstrong did go to Shamokin, v^^liere he met 

A — Shickalemy, and induced him to use his influence in behalf 
. of the settlers in the new purchase ; but Shickalemy's labors 

■ were lost, for he could effect nothing among the savages of 
Kishicoquillas, and the settlers were forced to fly for protec- 
tion to Fort Granville ; nor did they or any other whites 
venture into the valley until some time in 1765. 

Shickalemy, or Shickellimus, as he was sometimes called, 
was a Cayuga chief, of the Six Nations, and for many years 
resided at Fort Augusta, on the Susquehanna, where Sun- 
bury now stands. He was converted to Christianity by the 
Moravian missionaries about 1742, and was, to the day of 
his death, the firm and steadfast friend of the English colo- 
nists. To his exertions, in a great measure, may be traced 
the cause why none of the Six Nations on the Susquehanna 
^ ,:' joined the French, and why a portion of the Delawares 
L^^^' spurned the most tempting off'ers of the French agents and 
^Vv»A remained loyal to the colonists. 

lijty^ Shickalemy attended numerous treaties in Philadelphia, 
-^' during which he was kindly entertained by James Logan, 
the secretary of the province. The chief esteemed him so 
highly that he named his second son after him, on his re- 
turn from one of these treaties, and immediately had him, as 
well as two other sons, baptized with Christian rites by the 
Moravians. 

In 17^, Shickalemy paid a visit to the old chief Kishi- 
cokelas, for the purpose of adopting some conciliatory meas- 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 105 

ures to prevent the Indians of the valley from committing 
depredations upon the settlers. On this occasion he was ac- 
companied by his sons, John and James Logan. The latter, 
probably charmed with the beauty of the valley, soon after 
the demise of Kishicokelas settled in the valley which bore 
the name of his father's friend. He built himself a cabin 
(not a wigwam) by the side of a fine limestone spring, whose 
waters gushed out of a small hill-side in the very heart of 
the valley, where his sole pursuit was hunting. This was 
Logan, the Mingo chief, whose name is perpetuated by 
counties, towns, townships, valleys, paths, mountains, and 
even hotels, and which will live in history, probably to the 
end of time. 

There is no evidence that he had a family at the time 
he resided in Kishicoquillas ; neither was he a chief at that 
time, for he lived away from his tribe, and what little inter- 
course he had with his fellow-men was with the whites, to 
whom he bartered venison and deer-skins for such articles 
as he stood in need of. He maintained himself solely by 
hunting, and was passionately fond of it. A gentleman who 
saw Logan at Standing Stone, in 1771 or 1772, described him 
to Mr. Maguire as " a fine-looking, muscular fellow, appa- 
rently about twenty-eight years of age. He weighed about two 
hundred pounds, had a full chest, and prominent and en- 
pansive features. His complexion was not so dark as that 
of the Juniata Indians, and his whole actions showed that 
he had had some intercourse with the whites." This noble 
specimen of the red men, unfortunately, had the failing 
common to his kind: he would indulge in intoxicating 
liquors to excess on nearly every occasion that offered. 
When sober, he was dignified and reserved, but frank and 
honest; when intoxicated, he was vain, boastful, and ex- 
tremely foolish. 

Judge Brown, a short time previous to his death, in the 
course of a conversation with R. P. Maclay, Esq., about 
Logan, said : — 



106 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

"The first time I ever saw that spring, (Logan's,) my brother, 
James Reed, and myself, had wondered out qf the valley in 
search of land, and, finding it very good, we were looking about 
for springs. About a mile from this we started a bear, and sep- 
arated to get a shot at him. I was travelling along, looking 
about on the rising ground for the bear, when I came suddenly 
upon the spring ; and being dry, and more rejoiced to find so 
fine a spring than to have killed a dozen bears, I set my rifle 
against a bush, and rushed down the bank, and laid down to 
drink. Upon putting my head down, I saw reflected in the water, 
on the opposite side, the shadow of a tall Indian. I sprang to my 
rifle, when the Indian gave a yell, whether for peace or war I 
was not just then sufficiently master of my faculties to deter- 
mine ; but upon my seizing my rifle and facing him, he 
knocked up the pan of his gun, threw out the priming, and 
extended his open palm toward me in token of friendship. After 
putting down our guns, we again met at the spring, and shook 
hands. This was Logan — the best specimen of humanity I ever 
met with, either whhe or red. He could speak a little English, 
and told me there was another white hunter a little way down 
the stream, and offered to guide me to his camp. There I first 
met your father, (Samuel Maclay.) We remained together in 
the valley for a week, looking for springs and selecting lands, 
and laid the foundation of a friendship which never has had the 
slightest interruption. 

" We visited Logan at his camp, at Logan's Spring, and your 
father and he shot at a mark, for a dollar a shot. Logan lost 
four or five rounds, and acknowledged himself beaten. When 
we were about to leave him, he went into his hut and brought 
out as many deer-skins as he had lost dollars, and handed them 
to Mr. Maclay, who refused to take them, alleging that he had 
been his guest, and did not come to rob him ; that the shooting 
had only been a trial of skill, and the bet merely nominal. 
Logan drew himself up with great dignity, and said, ' Me bet to 
make you shoot your best; me gentleman, and me take your 
dollar if me beat.' So he was obliged to take the skins, or af- 
front our friend, whose nice sense of honor would not permit 
him to receive even a horn of powder in return. 

*' The next year,' said Judge Brown, " I brought my wife up, 
and camped under a big walnut-tree on the bank of Tea Creek, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 107 

until I had built a cabin near where the mill now stands, and I 
have lived in the valley ever since. Poor Logan " (and the tears 
chased each other down his cheeks) " soon after went into the 
Alleghany, and I never saw him again." 

Many other characteristic anecdotes are given of Logan, 
the publication of which in these pages would answer no 
very desirable end. 

In looking over the few pages of manuscripts left by the 
late Edw'ard Bell, Esq., we find mention made of " Captain 
Logan, an Indian friendly to the whites." This confirmed 
us in the belief that there were two Logans. "Logan, the 
Mingo chief," left Kishicoquillas Valley in 1.771 ; while Cap- 
tain Logan resided in the upper end of Huntingdon county 
at that time, and a few years afterward in Logan's Valley, in 
Blair county. When the Revolution broke out, he moved 
toward the mountain, in the neighborhood of Chickalaca- 
moose, near what is now Clearfield. He served as a spy for 
the settlers, and rendered them valuable service. He was 
an Iroquois or Mingo Indian, too, and a chief; whereas 
Logan, the Mingo, was no chief until he removed to 'Ohio 
after his relatives were murdered and he took up the hatchet 
against the whites. This explanation is necessary, because 
many people of Huntingdon and Blair counties are under 
the impression that the Captain Logan who resided in Tuck- 
ahoe as late as 1785, and Logan, the Mingo chief, were one 
and the same person. 

Logan, in consequence of Kishicoquillas becoming too 
thickly populated, and the game becoming proportionately 
scarce, emigrated to Ohio, where he settled at the mouth of 
Yellow^ Creek, thirty miles above Wheeling. There he was 
joined by his surviving relatives and some Cayugas from 
Fort Augusta, and a small Indian village of log-huts was 
built up. 

Heckwelder, who must have seen him previous to settling 
at Yellow Creek, sj)eaks of him as follows : — 

About the year 1772, Logan was introduced to me by an In- 
dian friend, as son of the late reputable chief Shikelemus, and 



108 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

as a friend to the white people. In the course of conversation^ 
I thought him a man of superior talents than Indians generally 
were. The subject turning on vice and immorality, he confessed 
his too great share of this, especially his fondness for liquor.. 
He exclaimed against the white people for imposing liquors 
upon the Indians. He otherwise admired their ingenuity ; 
spoke of gentlemen, but observed the Indians unfortunately 
had but few of these neighbors, &c. He spoke of his friendship 
to the white people, wished always to be a neighbor to them, in- 
tended to settle on the Ohio, below Big Beaver; was (to the best 
of my recollection) then encamped at the mouth of this river, 
(Beaver;) urged me to pay him a visit. I was then living at the 
Moravian town on this river, in the neighborhood of Cuskuskee. 
In April, 1773, while on my passage down the Ohio for Musk- 
ingum, I called at Logan's settlement, where I received every 
civility I could expect from such of the family as were at home. 
Indian reports concerning Logan, after the death of his family, 
ran to this : that he exerted himself during the Shawnees war 
(then so called) to take all the revenge he could, declaring he 
had lost all confidence in the white people. At the time of ne- 
gotiation, he declared his reluctance to lay down the hatchet, not 
having (in his opinion) yet taken ample satisfaction ; yet, for 
the sake of the nation, he would do it. His expression, from 
time to time, denoted a deep melancholy. Life, said he, had be- 
come a torment to him ; he knew no more what pleasure was ; 
he thought it had been better if he had never existed. Report 
further states that he became in some measure delirious; de- 
clared he would kill himself; went to Detroit, and, on his way 
between that place and Miami, was murdered. In October, 1781, 
while a prisoner, on my way to Detroit, I was shown the spot 
where this was said to have happened. 

That Logan's temper should have soured on the murder 
of his relatives and friends, after the friendship he had al- 
ways extended to the whites, is not at all strange. These 
murders changed his nature from a peaceable Indian to a 
most cruel and bloodthirsty savage. Revenge stimulated 
him to the most daring deeds; and how many innocent 
white men, women, and children, he ushered into eternity to 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 109 

appease his wrath, is only known to Him "whose eye seeth 
all things." 

His people — some say his family, but it never was ascer- 
tained that he had any — were murdered in May, 1774. 
Some roving Indians had committed depredations in the 
neighborhood, and the settlers, highly incensed, determined 
to drive them out of the neighborhood. To this end, about 
thirty men, completely armed, and under the command of 
Daniel Greathouse, without knowing the character and dis- 
position of Logan and his friends, made a descent upon the 
village and destroyed it, and killed twelve and wounded six 
or eight of the Indians. Among the former was Logan's 
sister and a son of Kishicokelas. Logan was absent, at the 
time of the occurrence, on a hunting expedition. On his 
return, as soon as he saw the extent of the injury done him, 
he buried the dead, and cared for the wounded, and, with 
the remnant of his band, went into Ohio, joined the Shaw- 
nees, and fought during their war against the whites with 
the most bitter and relentless fury. 

In the autumn of 1774, the Indians, getting some very 
rough usage, and fearing that the powerful army of Lord 
Dunmore would march upon and exterminate them, sued 
for peace. Lord Dunmore sent a belt of wampum to all the 
principal chiefs, and among the rest, one to Logan, inviting 
them to a treaty. Logan refused to attend the council, but 
sent the following speech by an interjDreter, in a belt of 
wampum. The treaty was held under an oak-tree, near 
Circleville, Ohio, and it was there that the eloquent and 
purely Indian speech which rendered Logan's name immor- 
tal was read, and brought tears to the eyes of many of the 
sturdy pioneers assembled : — 

" I appeal," says Logan, " to any white man to say if he ever 
■entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if he 
came naked and cold, and I clothed him not. During the last 
long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an ad- 
vocate of peace. Such was my love for the whites that my 
countrymen, as they passed, said, ' Logan is the friend of the 



110 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

whites.' I had thought of living among you, but for the in- 
juries of one man. Captain Cressap, last spring, in cold blood, 
and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not spar- 
ing even my women and children. There runs not one drop of 
my blood in any living creature. This called on me for revenge. 
I have sought it ; I have killed many ; I have fully glutted my 
vengeance. For my country, I rejoice in the beams of peace. 
But do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. 
Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his 
life. Who is there to mourn for Logan ? Not one ! " 

The authorship of this speech was attributed to Thomas 
Jefferson, but he most emphatically denied it, as did others 
who were present at the treaty. 

With respect to Captain Cressap, Logan was doubtless mis- 
informed. It is true Captain Cressap was a daring frontier- 
man, who considered it an obligation imposed upon him by 
the Creator to slay Indians, but he was altogether innocent 
of the charge made against him by Logan. The massacre 
in question, when the facts were known after Dunmore's 
treaty, was deeply deplored, and the wanton butchery of 
Cressap execrated. Cressap's friends, however, would not 
suffer the stigma of an inhuman act, of which he was not 
guilty, to be fixed upon him ; so they procured all the evi- 
dence to be had in the case, and fixed the disreputable deed 
upon Daniel Greathouse and his followers. A number of 
affidavits to that effect were made by men who accompanied 
Greathouse, and published a year or two after the treaty ; 
others in 1799, when the subject was revived and freely dis- 
cussed. 

Seeing the great disadvantages the Indians labored under 
in trying to cope with well-armed and disciplined troops, 
and believing that his revenge was far from being satiated, 
it is cjuite likely that Logan became partially insane, as 
Heckwelder avers ; but it is quite certain that he became a 
misanthrope, and for a long time refused to mingle with 
human beings. At length he plunged into deep excesses, 
and all he could earn, by the most skilful use of the rifle. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. Ill 

went to gratify his inordinate thrist for strong drink. The 
once proud and noble Mingo chief gradually descended the 
scale of dignified manhood, outlived his greatness, and was 
killed in a drunked brawl. Sorry are we to say this, in the 
face of the romance of history ; nevertheless it is true. We 
had the statement from an old Ohio pioneer, nearly twenty 
years ago. 



112 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER X. 

COL. JOHN Armstrong's expedition against kittaning — list of 

THE KILLED AND WOUNDED — DELAWARE CHIEFS, CAPTAIN JACOBS 
AND SHINGAS. 

-fttjTTI^ following account of the famous expedition against 
Jl 11 the Indian town of Kittaning we deem worthy of be- 

^4^ ing recorded, not only because the companies of Cap- 
tains Potter and Steele belonged to the Juniata Valley, but 
on account of its being an interesting detail of an important 
event in the early settlement of the country. 

The expedition was planned and carried out with great 
secresy, for the sole purpose of punishing the Indians en- 
gaged in the Juniata Valley massacres, and who it was 
known had their head-quarters at Kittaning, where the 
chief instigators of all the mischief, Shingas and Captain 
Jacobs, lived. The command was intrusted to Colonel John 
Armstrong, a brave and prudent officer, and the forces con- 
sisted of seven companies. He left Fort Shirley (Aughwick, 
Huntingdon county) on the 30th of August, 1756, and on 
the 3d of September came up with the advanced party at 
"Beaver Dams, a few miles south of Frankstown, on the 
north branch of the Juniata." This junction of the forces 
occurred on the flat where Gaysport now stands, where the 
little army struck the celebrated trail known as the Kittan- 
ing Path. In his official account of the expedition, dated 
at Fort Littletown, September 14, 1756, Colonel Armstrong 
says : — 

We were there [at the Beaver Dams] informed that some of 
our men, having been out upon a scout, had discovered the 
tracks of two Indians about three miles this side of the Alle- 
ghany Mountain and but a few miles from the camp. From 
the freshness of the tracks, their killing of a cub bear, and the 
marks of their fires, it seemed evident they were not twenty-four 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 113 

hours before us, which might be looked upon as a particular 
providence in our favor that we were not discovered. Next 
morning we decamped, and in two days came within fifty miles 
of the Kittaning. It was then adjudged necessary to send some 
persons to reconnoiter the town, and to get the best intelligence 
they could concerning the situation and position of the enemy ; 
whereupon an officer, with one of the pilots and two soldiers, 
were sent off for that purpose. The day following we met them 
on their return, and they informed us that the roads were en- 
tirely clear of the enemy, and that they had the greatest reason 
to believe they were not discovered ; but from the rest of the in- 
telligence they gave it appeared they had not been nigh enough 
the town, either to perceive the true situation of it, the number 
of the enemy, or in what way it might most advantageously be 
attacked. We continued our march, in order to get as near the 
town as possible that night, so as to be able to attack it next 
morning about daylight; but, to our great dissatisfaction, about 
nine or ten o'clock at night one of our guides came and told us 
that he perceived a fire by the road-side, at which he saw two 
or three Indians, a few perches distant from our front; where- 
upon, with all possible silence, I ordered the rear to retreat 
about one hundred perches, in order to make way for the front 
that we might consult how we could best proceed without being 
discovered by the enemy. Soon after, the pilot returned a second 
time, and assured us, from the best observations he could make, 
there were not above three or four Indians at the fire, on which 
it was proposed that we should immediately surround and cut 
them off; but this was thought too hazardous, for, if but one of 
the enemy had escaped, it would have been the means of dis- 
covering the whole design ; and the light of the moon, on which 
depended our advantageously posting our men and attacking the 
town, would not admit of our staying until the Indians fell 
asleep ; on which it was agreed to leave Lieutenant Hogg, with 
twelve men and the person who first discovered the fire with 
orders to watch the enemy, but not to attack them, till break of 
day, and then, if possible, to cut them off. It was also agreed 
(we believing ourselves to be but about six miles from the town) 
to leave the horses, many of them being tired, with what blank- 
ets and other baggage we then had, and to take a circuit off the 
8 



114 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

road, which was very rough and incomnaodious on account of 
the stones and fallen timber, in order to prevent our being heard 
by the enemy at the fire place. This interruption much re- 
tarded our march, but a still greater loss arose from the igno- 
rance of our pilot, who neither knew the true situation of the 
town nor the best paths that led thereto ; by which means, after 
crossing a number of hills and valleys, our front reached the 
river Ohio [Alleghany] about one hundred perches below the 
main body of the town, a little before the setting of the moon, 
to which place, rather than by the pilot, we were guided by the 
beating of the drum and the whooping of the warriors at their 
dance. It then became us to make the best use of the remain- 
ing moonlight ; but, ere we were aware, an Indian whistled in a 
very singular manner, about thirty perches from our front, in 
the foot of a corn-field; upon which we immediately sat down, 
and, after passing silence to the rear, I asked one Baker, a sol- 
dier, who was our best assistant, whether that was not a signal 
to the warriors of our approach. He answered " No," and said 
it was the manner of a young fellow's calling a squaw after he 
had done his dance, who accordingly kindled a fire, cleaned his 
gun, and shot it off before he went to sleep. All this time we 
were obliged to lie quiet and lurk, till the moon was fairly set. 
Immediately after, a number of fires appeared in different places 
in the corn-field, by which Baker said the Indians lay, the night 
being warm, and that these fires would immediately be out, as 
they were only designed to disperse the gnats. By this time it 
was break of day, and the men, having marched thirty miles, 
were mostly asleep. The time being long, the three companies 
of the rear were not yet brought over the last precipice. For 
these some proper hands were immediately dispatched ; and the 
weary soldiers being roused to their feet, a proper number, un- 
der sundry officers, were ordered to take the end of the hill at 
which we then lay, and march along the top of the said hill 
at least one hundred perches, and so much farther (it then being 
daylight) as would carry them opposite the upper part, or at 
least the body, of the town. For the lower part thereof and the 
corn-field, presuming the warriors were there, I kept rather the 
larger number of men, promising to postpone the attack in that 
part for eighteen or twenty minutes, until the detachment along 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 115 

the hill should have time to advance to the place assigned them 
— in doing of which they were a little unfortunate. The time 
being elapsed, the attack was begun in the corn-field, and the 
men, with all expedition possible, despatched through the sev- 
eral parts thereof, a party being also despatched to the houses, 
which were then discovered by the light of the day. Captain 
Jacobs immediately then gave the war-whoop, and, with sundry 
other Indians, as the English prisoners afterward told, cried the 
white men were at last come, they would then have scalps 
enough ; but, at the same time, ordered their squaws and child- 
ren to flee to the woods. Our men, with great eagerness, passed 
through and fired in the corn-field, where they had several re- 
turns from the enemy, as they also had from the opposite side 
of the river. Presently after, a brisk fire began among the 
houses, which from the house of Captain Jacobs was returned 
with a great deal of resolution, to which place I immediately 
repaired, and found that from the advantage of the house and 
portholes sundry of our people were wounded and some killed; 
and, finding that returning the fire upon the house was ineflfect- 
ual, I ordered the contiguous houses to be set on fire, which was 
performed by sundry of the officers and soldiers with a great 
deal of activity, the Indians always firing whenever an object 
presented itself, and seldom missing of wounding or killing some 
of our people — from which house, on moving about to give the 
necessary orders and directions, I received a wound with a large 
musket-ball in the shoulders. Sundry persons, during the action, 
were ordered to tell the Indians to surrender themselves prison- 
ers, but one of the Indians in particular answered and said he 
was a man, and would not be a prisoner ; upon which he was 
told, in Indian, he would be burnt. To this he answered he did 
not care, for he would kill four or five before he died ; and, had 
we not desisted from exposing ourselves, they would have killed 
a great many more, they having a number of loaded guns by 
them. As the fire began to approach and the smoke grew thick, 
one of the Indian fellows, to show his manhood, began to sing. 
A squaw in the same house, and at the same time, was heard to 
cry and make a noise, but for so doing was severely rebuked by 
the man; but by-and-by, the fire being too hot for them, two 
Indian fellows and a squaw sprang out and made for the corn- 



•116 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

field, who were immediately shot down by our people then sur- 
rounding the houses. It was thought Captain Jacobs tumbled 
himself out at a garret or cockloft window at which he was shot 
— our prisoners offering to be qualified to the powder-horn and 
pouch there taken oflf him, which they say he had lately got 
from a French officer in exchange for Lieutenant Armstrong's 
boots, which he carried from Fort Granville, where the lieutenant 
was killed. The same prisoners say they are perfectly assured 
of his scalp, as no other Indians there wore their hair in the 
same manner. They also say they know his squaw's scalp by a 
particular 606, and also know the scalp of a young Indian called 
the King's Son. Before this time, Captain Hugh Mercer, who, 
early in the action, was wounded in the arm, had been taken to 
the top of a hill above the town, — to whom a number of the 
men and some of the officers were gathered, from whence they 
had discovered some Indians pass the river and take the hill, 
with an intention, as they thought, to surround us and cut off 
our retreat, from whom I had sundry pressing messages to leave 
the houses and retreat to the hills, or we should all be cut ofif. 
But to this I would by no means consent until all the houses 
were set on fire. Though our spreading upon the hills appeared 
very necessary, yet did it prevent our researches of the corn-field 
and riverside, by which means sundry scalps were left behind, 
and doubtless some squaws, children, and English prisoners, that 
otherwise might have been got. During the burning of the 
houses, which were near thirty in number, we were agreeably 
entertained with a quick succession of charged guns gradually 
firing ofif as reached by the fire, but much more so with the vast 
explosion of sundry bags and large kegs of gunpowder, where- 
with almost every house abounded; the prisoners afterward in- 
forming us that the Indians had frequently said they had a 
sufficient stock of ammunition for ten years' war with the Eng- 
lish. With the roof of Captain Jacobs's house, when the powder 
blew up, was thrown the leg and thigh of an Indian, with a child 
of three or four years old, to such a height that they appeared 
as nothing, and fell in an adjoining corn-field. There was also a 
great quantity of goods burnt, which the Indians had received 
in a present but ten days before from the French. By this time 
I had proceeded to the hill, to have my wound tied up and the 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 117 

blood stopped, where the prisoners which in the morning had 
come to our people informed me that that very day two bateaux 
of Frenchmen, with a large party of Delaware and French In- 
dians, were to join Captain Jacobs at the Kittaning, and to set 
out early the next morning to take Fort Shirley, or, as they 
called it, George Crogan's Fort; and that twenty-four warriors, 
who had lately come to the town, were set out the evening be- 
fore, for what purpose they did not know, — whether to prepare 
meat, to spy the fort, or to make an attack on some of our back 
inhabitants. Soon after, upon a little reflection, we were con- 
vinced these warriors were all at the fire we had discovered but 
the night before, and began to doubt the fate of Lieutenant 
Hogg and his party. From this intelligence of the prisoners, — 
our provisions being scaffolded some thirty miles back, except 
what were in the men's haversacks, which were left, with the 
horses and blankets, with Lieutenant Hogg and his party, — and 
having a number of wounded people then on hand, by the ad- 
vice of the officers it was thought imprudent then to wait for 
the cutting down the corn-field, (which was before designed,) 
but immediately to collect our wounded and force our march 
back in the best manner we could ; which we did, by collecting 
a few Indian horses to carry off our wounded. From the appre- 
hension of being waylaid and surrounded, (especially by some 
of the woodsmen,) it was difficult to keep the men together, our 
march, for sundry miles, not exceeding two miles an hour; which 
apprehensions were heightened by the attempt of a few Indians, 
who, for some time after the march, fired upon each wing and 
immediately ran off; from whom we received no other damage 
but one of our men being wounded through both legs. Captain 
Mercer — being wounded, was induced, as we have every reason 
to believe, by some of his men, to leave the main body, with his 
ensign, John Scott, and ten or twelve men, they being heard to 
tell him that we were in great danger, and that they could take 
him into the road a nigh way — is probably lost, there being yet 
no account of him, and the most of the men come in. A de- 
tachment was sent back to bring him, but could not find him ; 
and upon the return of the detachment it was generally reported 
he was seen, with the above number of men, to take a different 
road. Upon our return to the place where the Indian fire had 



118 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

been discovered the night before, we met with a sergeant of Cap- 
tain Mercer's company, and two or three other of his men, who 
had deserted us that morning, immediately after the action at 
the Kittaning. These men, on running away, had met with 
Lieutenant Hogg, who lay wounded in two different parts of his 
body Jay the road-side. He there told them of the fatal mistake 
of the pilot, who had assured us there were but three Indians, at 
the most, at the fire place; but when he came to attack them 
that morning, according to orders, he found a number considera- 
bly superior to his, and believes they killed or mortally wounded 
three of them the first fire, after which a warm engagement be- 
gan, and continued for above an hour, when three of his best 
men were killed and himself twice wounded. The residue flee- 
ing off, he was obliged to squat in a thicket, where he might 
have lain securely until the main body had come up, if this 
cowardly sergeant and others that fled with him had not taken 
him away. 

They had marched but a short space when four Indians ap- 
peared, on which these deserters began to flee. The lieutenant 
then, notwithstanding his wounds, as a brave soldier, urged and 
commanded them to stand and fight, which they all refused. 
The Indians pursued, killing one man and wounding the lieu- 
tenant a third time through the belly, of which he died in a few 
hours, but, having sometime before been put on horseback, rode 
some miles from the place of action. This last attack of the 
Indians upon Lieutenant Hogg and the deserters was by the 
before-mentioned sergeant represented to us quite in a difi"erent 
light, he telling us that there was a far larger number of Indians 
there than appeared to them, and that he and the men with him 
had fought five rounds; that he had there seen the lieutenant 
and sundry others killed and scalped, and had also discovered 
a number of Indians throwing themselves before us, and insin- 
uated a great deal of such stuff" as threw us into much confusion; 
so that the officers had a great deal to do to keep the men to- 
gether, but could not prevail upon them to collect what horses 
and other baggage the Indians had left after the conquest of 
Lieutenant Hogg and the party under his command in the morn- 
ing, except a few of the horses, which some of the bravest of 
the men were prevailed on to collect; so that from the mistakes 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 119 

of the pilot who spied the Indians at the fire, and the cowardice 
of the said sergeant and other deserters, we here sustained a 
considerable loss of our horses and baggage. It is impossible to 
ascertain the exact number of the enemy killed in the action, 
as some were destroyed by fire, and others in different parts of 
the cornfield ; but, upon a moderate computation, it is generally 
believed there cannot be less than thirty or forty killed and 
mortally wounded, as much blood was found in sundry parts of 
the corn-field ; and Indians seen in several places crawl into the 
woods on hands and feet, — whom the soldiers in pursuit of others 
then overlooked, expecting to find and scalp them afterward, — 
and also several killed and wounded in crossing the river. On 
beginning our march back, we had about a dozen of scalps and 
eleven English prisoners ; but now we find that four or five of 
the scalps are missing, part of which were lost on the road, and 
part in possession of those men who, with Captain Mercer, sep- 
arated from the main body, with whom went also four of the 
prisoners, the other seven being now at this place, where we ar- 
rived on Sunday night, not being separated or attacked through 
our whole march by the enemy, though we expected it every 
day. Upon the whole, had our pilots understood the true situa- 
tion of the town and the paths leading to it, so as to have posted 
us at a convenient place where the disposition of the men and 
the duty assigned to them could have been performed with 
greater advantage, we had, by divine assistance, destroyed a 
much greater number of the enemy, recovered more prisoners, 
and sustained less damage, than what we at present have. But 
though the advantage gained over this our common enemy 
is far from being satisfactory to us, yet we must not despise 
the smallest degrees of success that God is pleased to give, 
especially at a time of such general calamity, when the attempts 
of our enemies have been so prevalent and successful. I am 
sure there was the greatest inclination to do more' had it been 
in our power, as the officers and most of the soldiers, throughout 
the whole action, exerted themselves with as much activity and 
resolution as could be expected. Our prisoners inform us the 
Indians have for some time past talked of fortifying at the 
Kittaning and other towns. 

The following is a list of the killed and wounded, re- 



120 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

turned in Colonel Armstrong's official report of the expe- 
dition : — 

Lieutenant-Colonel John Armstrong's Company. — 
Killed — Thomas Power, John M'Cormick. Wounded — Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Armstrong, James Caruthers, James Strick- 
land, Thomas Foster. 

Captain Hamilton's Company. — Killed — John Kelly. 

Captain Mercer's Company. — Killed — John Baker, John 
McCartney, Patrick Mullen, Cornelius McGinnis, Theophilus 
Thompson, Dennis Kilpatrick, Biyan Carrigan. Wounded 
— Richard Fitzgibbons. Missing — Captain Hugh Mercer, 
Ensign John Scott, Emanuel Minskey, John Taylor, John 
Francis Phillips, Robert Morrow, Thomas Burk, Philip Pen- 
dergrass. 

Captain Armstrong's Company. — Killed — Lieutenant 
James Hogg, James Anderson, Holdcraft Stringer, Edward 
Obrians, James Higgins, John Lassen. Wounded — William 
Findley, Robert Robinson, John Ferrol, Thomas Camplin, 
Charles O'Neal. Missing — John Lewis, William Hunter, 
William Barker, George Appleby, Anthony Grissy, Thomas 
Swan. 

Captain Ward's Company. — Killed — William Welch. 
Wounded — Ephriam Bratton. Missing — Patrick M3'-ers, Law- 
rence Dannahow, Samuel Chambers. 

Captain Potter's Company. — Wounded — Ensign James 
Potter, Andrew Douglass. 

Captain Steel's Company. — Missing — Terence Canna- 
herry. 

Total killed, 17; wounded, 13; missing, 19. All the miss- 
ing, with one or two exceptions, reached their homes, and 
nearly all of the wounded recovered. 

The loss on the part of the colonists was severe, when we 
consider that they had three hundred and fifty men en- 
gaged in the action, while the Indian force did not consist 
of over one hundred warriors. The ignorance of the pilot, 
and the great error of some of the officers in persisting in 
trying to dislodge the enemy from the houses by discharge 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 121 

of fire-arms, was no doubt the direct cause of the death of 
many of the brave men ; for all admit that the expedition 
was well planned, and admirably carried out, as far as cir- 
cumstances would permit. 

In speaking of the horrible Indian massacres which fol- 
lowed the defeat of Braddock, Drake, in his Indian his- 
tory, says: — 

Shingas and Captain Jacobs were supposed to have been the 
principal instigators of them, and a reward of seven hundred 
dollars was offered for their heads. It was at this period that 
the dead bodies of some of the murdered and mangled were 
sent from the frontiers to Philadelphia, and hauled about the 
streets, to inflame the people against the Indians, and also against 
the Quakers, to whose mild forbearance was attributed a laxity 
in sending out troops. The mob surrounded the House of As- 
sembly, having placed the dead bodies at its entrance, and de- 
manded immediate succor. At this time, the above reward was 
offered. 

King Shingas, as he was called by the whites, (who is 
noticed in the preceding paragragh,) but whose proper name 
was Shingask, which is interpreted Bog-meadoiv, was the 
greatest Delaware warrior at that time. Heckwelder, who 
knew him personally, says, " Were his war exploits all on 
record, they would form an interresting document, though a 
shocking one." Conococheague, Big Cove, Sherman's Valley, 
and other settlements along the frontier, felt his strong arm 
sufficiently to attest that he was a " bloody warrior," — cruel 
his treatment, relentless his fury. His person was small, 
but in point of courage, activity, and savage prowess, he 
was said to have never been exceeded by any one. In 1753, 
when Washington was on his expedition to fight the French 
on the Ohio, (Allegheny,) Shingas had his house at Kittaning. 

King Shingas was at Fort Duquesne when Lieutenant 
Armstrong destroyed Kittaning ; but there is no doubt what- 
ever that Captain Jacobs fell in the engagement, notwith- 
standing Hans Hamilton, in a letter to the council, dated at 
Fort Lyttleton, April 4, 1756, said, "Indian Isaac hath 



122 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

brought in the scalp of Captain Jacobs." This Indian Isaac 
claimed, and we believe received, the reward offered for 
killing and scalping Captain Jacobs, and yet Captain Jacobs 
lived to do a great deal of mischief before his scalp fell into 
the hands of the English colonists. 

Not only was Captain Jacobs a great warrior, but it 
would appear that all his family connections were Indians 
of note. In a letter from Colonel Stephen to Colonel Arm- 
strong, it is stated, on authority of a returned captive from 
Muskingum, that 

A son of Captain Jacobs is killed, and a cousin of his, about 
seven feet high, called Young Jacobs, at the destroying of Kit- 
taning, and it is thought a noted warrior by the name of The 
Sunfish, as many of them were killed that we know nothing of. 

There is no doubt that Armstrong's return did not em- 
brace half the actual loss of the enemy, including women 
and children ; but it was a mistake in Stejohen or his infor- 
mant to include the warrior Sunfish among the slain, for he 
was a hale old chief in 1781. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 123 



CHAPTER XI. 

OLD INDIAN TOWN — INDIAN PATHS — AUGHWICK — MURDER OF JOHN 
ARMSTRONG AND PARTY — CAPTAIN JACK, THE WILD HUNTER OF 
THE JUNIATA — GEORGE CROGAN, ETC. 

^ S we ascend the river, the nearer we approach the base 
7\ of the Alleghany Mountains the fewer places we find 
(^fV even mentioned in quite early history. On the flat 
eight or nine miles west of Lewistown, near a large spring, 
stood an old Shawnee town. It is mentioned as early as 
1731, in a report of the number of Indians accompanying 
the deposition of some traders. The town w^as called Ohesson, 
on the " Choniata," and supposed to be sixty miles distant 
from the Susquehanna. As this is Indian computation, 
some allowance must be made, for in some connection we 
notice the Indian town of Assunnepachla set down as being 
distant one hundred miles from Ohesson by water and fifty 
miles by land. Assunnepachla was the Indian name of 
Franktown; and no person, by following the most sinuous 
windings of the river, can make the distance to Lewistown 
over eighty miles. 

These places were probably never visited by any but 
Indian traders previous to Braddock's defeat, and the con- 
sequence is that we are without any record of Ohesson, 
which was evidently destroyed and abandoned at an early 
day. Assunnepachla, however, stood for many years, but it 
lost its name before it became a place of importance to the 
whites. 

Aughwick, it is said, had the honor of receiving the first 
white settlers, in 1749, that came within the present limits 
of Huntingdon county. Of course, they were in search of 
choice lands, and there is reason to believe they found them, 
too, notwithstanding the proprietors and their man Peters, 
in a year thereafter, ousted them by burning their cabins 



124 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

over their heads. Aughwick Valley is in the extreme south- 
ern part of Huntingdon county, and, if not a regular con- 
tinuation of the Tuscarora Valley, is at least one of the 
chain of valleys through whose entire length ran the cele- 
brated path from Kittaning to Philadelphia, — the great 
western highway for footmen and pack-horses. 

This path, traces of which can yet be plainly seen in 
various places, and especially in the wilds of the mountains,, 
must have been a famous road in its day. It commenced at 
Kittaning, on the Alleghany River, and crossed the Allghany 
Mountains in a southeastern direction, the descent on the 
eastern slope being through a gorge, the mouth of Avhich is 
five or six miles west of Hollidaysburg, at what is well 
known as Kittaning Point. From this it diverged in a 
southern direction until it led to the flat immediately back 
of Holidaysburg, from th-ence east, wound round the gorge' 
back of the Presbyterian graveyard, and led into Frank's old 
town. From thence it went through what is now called 
Scotch Valley, Canoe Valley, and struck the river at Water 
street. From thence it led to Alexandria, crossed the river 
and went into Hartsog Valley ; from thence to Woodcock 
Valley; from Woodcock Valley, across the Broadtop mount- 
ain, into Aughwick ; from thence into the Tuscarora Valley, 
and from thence into Sherman's Valley, by Sterritt's Gap. 

At Kittaning Point, this path, although it is seldom that 
the foot of any one but an occasional hunter or fisher treads 
it, is still the same path it was when the last dusky warrior 
who visited the Juniata Valley turned his face to the west, 
and traversed it for the last time. True, it is filled up with 
weeds in summer-time, but the indentation made by the feet 
of thousands upon thousands of warriors and pack-horses- 
which traveled it for an unknown number of years are still 
plainly visible. We have gone up the Kittaning gorge two- 
or three miles, repeatedly, and looked upon the ruins of old 
huts, and the road, which evidently never received the im- 
pression of a wagon-wheel, and were forcibly struck with 
the idea that it must once have been traversed, without 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 125 

inowing- at the time that it was the famous Kittaning trail. 
In some places, where the ground was marshy, close to the 
run, the path is at least twelve inches deep, and the very- 
stones along the road bear the marks of the iron-shod horses 
of the Indian traders. Two years ago, we picked up, at the 
edge of the run, a mile up the gorge, two gun-flints, — now 
rated as relics of a past age. At the time we supposed that 
some modern Nimrod lost them. Now, however, we incline 
to the belief that they fell from the pocket of some weary 
soldier in Armstrong's battalion, who lay down upon the 
bank of the brook to slake his thirst, nearly a hundred years 
ago. The path can be traced in various other places, but 
nowhere so plain as in the Kittaning gorge. This is owing 
to the fact that one or two other paths led into it, and no im- 
provement has been made in the gorge east of " Hart's Sleep- 
ing Place," along the line of the path. 

Aughwick was an Indian town, located probably near 
where Shirleysburg now stands, and for a long time was an 
important frontier post. The name of the place figures ex- 
tensively in the Colonial Records, first as a place where 
many conferences were held, and afterwards as Fort Shirley. 

Previous to actual settlers coming into the Juniata Valley, 
every inch of it was known to the traders — or, at least, every 
Indian town in it ; and how long they trafficked with the 
red men before actual settlers came is unknown. Thus, for 
instance, six or seven years before the settlement of Augh- 
wick, a trader named John Armstrong, and his two servant- 
men, were murdered at what is now Jack's Narrows, in 
Huntingdon county. As there are several narrows along the 
Juniata, we should have been at a loss to locate the scene of 
the murder, had we not accidentally noticed in the Archives 
a calculation of distances by John Harris, wherein he says 
— " From Aughwick to John Armstrong's Narrows — so called 
from his being there murdered, — eight miles." At the time 
of the massacre, the British colonists and the Indians were 
on friendly terms of intimacy, and Armstrong was a man of 
some standing and influence, so that the murder (the first 



126 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 

one of so atrocious a nature in that region) created the most 
intense excitement. Along with Armstrong his servant-men, 
James Smith and Woodward Arnold, were also murdered. 
The charge was laid to a Delaware Indian, named Muse- 
meelin, and two companions. Seven white men and five In- 
dians searched for the bodies, found and buried them. The 
Indian was arrested and taken to Lancaster, and from there 
removed to Philadelphia for trial, but whether convicted or 
not the record does not say. Allumoppies, King of the Dela- 
wares, Shickallemy, and a number of other Indians of stand- 
ing and influence, were brought before the council in Phila- 
delphia, when the friends of Armstrong produced the fol- 
lowing affidavit of those who searched for the bodies: — 

Paxton, April 19^ 174-Jf.. 
The deposition of the subscribers testifieth and saith, that the 
subscribers, having a suspicion that John Armstrong, trader, to- 
gether with his men, James Smith and Woodward Arnold, were 
murdered by the Indians, they met at the house of Joseph 
Chambers, in Paxton, and there consulted to go to Shamokin, to 
consult with the Delaware king and Shickcalimy, and there 
council what they should do concerning the affair. Whereupon 
the king and council ordered eight of their men to go with the 
deponents to the house of James Berry, in order to go in quest 
of the murdered persons ; but that night they came to the said 
Berry's house three of the eight Indians ran away ; and the next 
morning these deponents, with the five Indians that remained, 
set out on their journey, peaceably, to the last supposed sleep- 
ing-place of the deceased; and upon their arrival, these depo- 
nents dispersed themselves, in order to find out the corpse of 
the deceased ; and one of the deponents, named James Berry, a 
small distance from the aforesaid sleeping-place, came to a white- 
oak tree, which had three notches on it, and close by said tree 
he found a shoulder-bone, which the deponent does suppose to 
be John Armstrong's, — and that he himself was eaten by the 
Indians, — which he carried to the aforesaid sleeping-place, and 
showed it to his companions, one of whom handed it to the said 
five Indians to know what bone it was; and they, after passing 
different sentiments upon it, handed it to a Delaware Indian, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 127 

who was suspected by the deponents; and they testify and say 
that as soon as the Indian took the bone in his hand his nose 
gushed out with blood, and he directly handed it to another. 
From whence these deponents steered along a path, about three 
or four miles, to the Narrows of Juniata, where they suspected 
the murder to have been committed; and where the Alleghany 
Road crosses the creek these deponents sat down, in order to 
consult on what measures to take to proceed on a discovery. 
Whereupon most of the white men, these deponents, crossed the 
creek again, and went down the creek, and crossed into an island, 
where these deponents had intelligence the corpse had been 
thrown; and there they met the rest of the white men and In- 
dians who were in company, and there consulted to go farther 
down the creek in quest of the corpse. And these deponents 
further say, they ordered the Indians to go down the creek on 
the other side; but they all followed these deponents at a small 
distance, except one Indian, who crossed the creek again; and 
soon after these deponents, seeing some bald eagles and other 
fowls, suspected the corpse to be thereabouts, and then lost sight 
of the Indians, and immediately found one of the corpses, 
which these deponents say was the corpse of James Smith, one 
of said Armstrong's men ; and directly upon finding the corpse 
these deponents heard three shots of guns, which they had great 
reason to think were the Indians their companions, who had 
deserted from them ; and in order to let them know that they 
had found the corpse these deponents fired three guns, but to 
no 'purpose, for they never saw the Indians any more. And 
about a quarter of a mile down the creek they saw more bald 
eagles, whereupon they made down toward the place, where 
they found another corpse (being the corpse of Woodworth 
Arnold, the other servant of said Armstrong) lying on a rock, 
and then went to the former sleeping-place, where they had ap- 
pointed to meet the Indians; but saw no Indians, only that the 
Indians had been there, and cooked some victuals for themselves 
and had gone ofi". 

And that night, the deponents further say, they had great 
reason to suspect that the Indians were then thereabouts, and 
intended to do them some damage, for a dog these deponents 
had with them barked that night, which was remarkable, for 
the said dog had not barked all the time they were out till that 



128 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

night, nor ever since, which occasioned these deponents to stand 
upon their guard behind the trees, with their guns cocked, that 
night. Next morning these deponents went back to the corpses, 
which they found to be barbarously and inhumanly murdered 
by very gashed, deep cuts on their hands with a tomahawk, or 
such like weapon, which had sunk into their skulls and brains; 
and in one of the corpses there appeared a hole in his skull near 
the cut, which was supposed to be with a tomahawk, which hole 
these deponents do believe to be a bullet-hole. And these de- 
ponents, after taking as particular view of the corpses as their 
melancholy condition would admit, they buried them as decently 
as their circumstances would allow, and returned home to Pax- 
ton, — the Alleghany Road to John Harris's, thinking it danger- 
ous to return the same way they went. And further these de- 
ponents say not. 

These same deponents, being legally qualified before me, James 
Armstrong, one of his majesty's justices of the peace for the 
county of Lancaster, have hereunto set their hands in testimony 
thereof. 

James Armstrong. 

Alexander Armstrong, Thomas McKee, Francis Ellis, John 
Florster, William Baskins, James Berry, John Watt, James 
Armstrong, David Denny. 

After the foregoing facts had been elicited, a regular 
Indian talk was had upon the matter, when Shickallemy 
gave the following as a true version of every thing connected 
with the massacre : — 

Brother the Governor : 

We have been all misinformed on both sides about the un- 
happy accident. Musemeelin has certainly murdered the three 
white men himself, and, upon the bare accusation of Neshaleeny's 
son, was seized and made a prisoner. Our cousins, the Delaware 
Indians, being then drunk, in particular Allumoppies, never ex- 
amined things, but made an innocent person prisoner, which 
gave a great deal of disturbance among us. , However, the two 
prisoners were sent, and by the way, in going down the river, 
they stopped at the house of James Berry. James told the 
young man, "I am sorry to see you in such a condition ; I have 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 129 

known you from a boy, and always loved you." Then the young 
man seemed to be very much struck to the heart, and said, " I have 
said nothing yet, but I will tell all ; let all the Indians come up, 
and the white people also; they shall hear it;" and then told 
Musemeelin, in the presence of the people, "Now I am going to die 
for your wickedness ; you have killed all the three white men. 
I never did intend to kill any of them." Then Musemeelin, 
in anger, said, " It is true, I have killed them.' I am a man, 
you are a coward. It is a great satisfaction to me to have killed 
them ; I will die for joy for having killed a great rogue and his 
companions." Upon which the young man was set at liberty by 
the Indians. 

We desire therefore our brother the governor will not insist to 
have either of the two young men in prison or condemned to 
die; it is not with Indians as with white people, to put people 
in prison on suspicion or trifles. Indians must first be found 
guilty of a cause; then judgment is given and immediately exe- 
cuted. We will give you faithfully all the particulars, and at 
the ensuing treaty entirely satisfy you ; in the mean time, we 
desire that good friendship and harmony continue, and that we 
may live long together is the hearty desire of your brethren the 
Indians of the United Six Nations present at Shamokin. 

The following is what Shickcalamy declared to be the truth of 
the story concerning the murder of John Armstrong, Woodworth 
Arnold, and James Smith, from the beginning to the end, to wit: 

That Musemeelin owing some skins to John Armstrong, the 
said Armstrong seized a horse of the said Musemeelin and a rifle- 
gun; the gun was taken by James Smith, deceased. Some time 
last winter Musemeelin met Armstrong on the river Juniata, and 
paid all but twenty shillings, for which he offered a neck-belt in 
pawn to Armstrong, and demanded his horse, and James Arm- 
strong refused it, and would not deliver up the horse, but en- 
larged the debt, as his usual custom was ; and after some quarrel 
the Indian went away in great anger, without his horse, to his 
hunting-cabin. Some time after this, Armstrong, with his two 
companions, on their way to Ohio, passed by the said Muse- 
meelin's hunting-cabin; his wife only being at home, she de- 
manded the horse of Armstrong, because he was her proper 
goods, but did not get him. Armstrong had by this time sold 
9 



130 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

or lent the horse to James Berry. After Musemeelin came from 
hunting, his wife told him that Armstrong was gone by, and 
that she had demanded the horse of him, but did not get him; 
and, as is thought, pressed him to pursue and take revenge of 
Armstrong. The third day, in the morning, after James Arm- 
strong was gone by, Musemeelin said to the two young men that 
hunted with him, " Come, let us go toward the Great Hills to 
hunt bears; " accordingly they went all three in company. After 
they had gone a good way,. Musemeelin, who was foremost, was 
told by the two young men that they were out of their course. 
"Come you along," said Musemeelin; and they accordingly fol- 
lowed him till they came to the path that leads to the Ohio. 
Then Musemeelin told them he had a good mind to go and fetch 
his horse back from Armstrong, and desired the two young men 
to come along. Accordingly they went. It was then almost 
night, and they travelled till next morning. Musemeelin said, 
" Now they are not far off. We will make ourselves black; then 
they will.be frightened, and will deliver up the horse immedi- 
ately; and I will tell Jack that if he don't give me the horse I 
will kill him;" and when he said so, he laughed. The young 
men thought he joked, as he used to do. They did not blacken 
themselves, but he did. When the sun was above the trees, or 
about an hour high, they all came to the fire, where they found 
James Smith sitting; and they also sat down. Musemeelin 
asked where Jack was. Smith told him that he was gone to 
clear the road 9, little. Musemeelin said he wanted to speak with 
him, and went that way, and after he had gone a little distance 
from the fire, he said something, and looked back laughing, but, 
he having a thick throat, and his speech being very bad, and 
their talking with Smith hindering them from understanding 
what he said, they did not mind it. They being hungry. Smith 
told them to kill some turtles, of which there were plenty, and 
they would make some bread by-and-by, and would all eat to- 
gether. While they were talking, they heard a gun go off, at 
which time Woodworth Arnold was killed, as they learned after- 
ward. Soon after, Musemeelin came back and said, " Why did 
you not kill that white man, according as I bid you? I have 
laid the other two down." At this they were surprised ; and 
one of the "young men, commonly called Jimmy, ran away to 
the river-side. Musemeelin said to the other, " How will you do 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 13^ 

to kill Catawbas, if you cannot kill white men ? You cowards t 
I'll show you how you must do ; " and then, taking up the En- 
glish axe that lay there, he struck it three times into Smith's, 
head before he died. Smith never stirred. Then he told the 
young Indian to call the other, but he was so terrified he could 
not call. Musemeelin then went and fetched him, and said that 
two of the white men were killed, he must now go and kill the 
third ; then each of them would have killed one. But neither of 
them dared venture to talk any thing about it. Then he pressed 
them to go along with him; he went foremost. Then one of the 
young men told the other, as they went along, " My friend, don't 
you kill any of the white people, let him do what he will; I have 
not killed Smith; he has done it himself; we have no need to 
do such a barbarous thing." Musemeelin being then a good 
way before them, in a hurry, they soon saw John Armstrong 
sitting upon an old log. Musemeelin spoke to him and saidy 
" Where is my horse? " Armstrong made answer and said, " He 
will come by-and-by ; you shall have him." " I want him now,'^ 
said Musemeelin. Armstrong answered, " You shall have him. 
Come, let us go to that fire," (which was at some distance from 
the place where Armstrong sat,) "and let us talk and smoke to- 
gether." "Go along, then," said Musemeelin. " I am coming,'^ 
said Armstrong, "do you go before, Musemeelin; do you go 
foremost." Armstrong looked then like a dead man, and went 
toward the fire, and was immediately shot in his back by Muse- 
meelin, and fell. Musemeelin then took his hatchet and struck 
it into Armstrong's head, and said, "Give me my horse, I tell 
you." By this time one of the young men had fled again that 
had gone away before, but he returned in a short time. Muse- 
meelin then told the young men they must not offer to discover 
or tell a word about what had been done, for their lives ; but 
they must help him to bury Jack, and the other two were to be 
thrown into the river. After that was done, Musemeelin ordered 
them to load the horses and follow toward the hill, where they 
intended to hide the goods. Accordingly they did; and, as they 
were going, Musemeelin told them that, as there were a great 
many Indians hunting about that place, if they should happen 
to meet with any they must be killed to prevent betraying them.. 
As they went along, Musemeelin going before, the two young 
men agreed to run away as soon as they could meet with any 



132 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Indians, and not to hurt anybody. They came to the desired 
place; the horses were unloaded, and Musemeelin opened the 
bundles, and offered the two young men each a parcel of goods. 
They told him that as they had already sold their skins, and 
everybody knew they had nothing, they would certainly be 
charged with a black action were they to bring any goods to the 
town, and therefore would not accept of any, but promised never- 
theless not to betray him. " Now," says Musemeelin, '' I know 
what you were talking about when you stayed so far behind." 
The two young men being in great danger of losing their lives 
— of which they had been much afraid all that day — accepted 
of what he offered to them, and the rest of the goods they put 
in a heap and covered them from the rain, and then went to 
their hunting-cabin. Musemeelin, unexpectedly finding two or 
three more Indians there, laid down his goods, and said he had 
killed Jack Armstrong and taken pay for his horse, and should 
any of them discover it, that person he would likewise kill, but 
otherwise they might all take a part of the goods. The young 
man called Jimmy went to Shamokin, after Musemeelin was 
gone to bury the goods, with three more Indians, with whom he 
had prevailed ; one of them was Neshaleeny's son, whom he had 
ordered to kill James Smith ; but these Indians would not have 
any of the goods. Some time after the young Indian had been 
in Shamokin, it was whispered about that some of the Delaware 
Indians had killed Armstrong and his men. A drunken Indian 
came to one of the Tudolous houses at night and told the man 
of the house that he could tell him a piece of bad news. " What 
is that?" said the other. The drunken man said, "Some of our 
Delaware Indians have killed Armstrong and his men, which if 
our chiefs should not resent, and take them up, I will kill them 
myself, to prevent a disturbance between us and the white peo- 
ple, our brethren." Next morning Shickcalamy and some other 
Indians of the Delawares were called to assist Allumoppies in 
council; when Shickcalamy and Allumoppies got one of the 
Tudolous Indians to write a letter to me, to desire me to come 
to Shamokin in all haste — that the Indians were very much dis- 
satisfied in mind. This letter was brought to my house by four 
Delaware Indians, sent express; but I was then in Philadelphia, 
and when I came home and found all particulars mentioned in 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 133 

this letter, and that none of the Indians of the Six Nations had 
been down, I did not care to meddle with Delaware Indian 
affairs, and stayed at home till I received the governor's orders 
to go, which was about two weeks after. Allumoppies was ad- 
vised by his council to employ a conjuror, or prophet, as they 
call it, to find out the murderer. Accordingly he did, and the 
Indians met. The seer, being busy all night, told them in the 
morning to examine such and such a one that was present when 
Armstrong was killed, naming the two young men. Musemeelin 
was present. Accordingly, Allumoppies, Quitheyquent, and 
Thomas Green, an Indian, went to him that had fled first, and 
examined him. He told the whole story very freely. Then 
they went to the other, but he would not say a word, and they 
went away and left him. The three Indians returned to Shick- 
calamy and informed them of what discovery they had made, 
when it was agreed to secure the murderers and deliver them up 
to the white people. Then a great noise arose among the Dela- 
ware Indians, and some were afraid of their lives and went into 
the woods. Not one cared to meddle with Musemeelin and the 
other that could not be prevailed on to discover any thing, be- 
cause of the resentment of their families ; but they being pressed 
by Shickcalamy's son to secure the murderers, otherwise they 
would be cut off from the chain of friendship, four or five of the 
Delawares made Musemeelin and the other young man prisoners, 
and tied them both. They lay twenty-four hours, and none 
would venture to conduct them down, because of the great divi- 
sion among the Delaware Indians ; and Allumoppies, in danger 
of being killed, fled to Shickcalamy and begged his protection. 
At last Shickcalamy's son. Jack, went to the Delawares, — most 
of them being drunk, as they had been for several days, — and 
told them to deliver the prisoners to Alexander Armstrong, and 
they were afraid to do it ; they might separate their heads from 
their bodies and lay them in the canoe, and carry them to Alex- 
ander to roast and eat them ; that would satisfy his revenge, as 
he wants to eat Indians. They prevailed with the said Jack to 
assist them ; and accordingly he and his brother, and some of 
the Delawares, went with two canoes and carried them off. 

Conrad Weiser, in a letter to a friend, dated Heidelberg, 1746, 
adverts to an interesting incident which occurred at the conclu- 



134 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

sion of this interview at Shamokin. He says, " Two years ago 
I was sent by the governor to Shamokin, on account of the un- 
happy death of John Armstrong, the Indian trader, (1744.) 
After I had performed my errand, there was a feast prepared, to 
which the governor's messengers were invited. There were about 
•one hundred persons present, to whom, after we had in great 
silence devoured a fat bear, the eldest of the chiefs made a 
speech, in which he said, that by a great misfortune three of the 
brethren, the white men, had been killed by an Indian; that, 
nevertheless, the sun was not set, (meaning there was no war ;) 
it had only been somewhat darkened by a small cloud, which 
was now done away. He that had done evil was like to be 
punished, and the land remain in peace ; therefore he exhorted 
his people to thankfulness to God ; and thereupon he began to 
sing with an awful solemnity, but without expressing any words ; 
the others accompanying him with great earnestness of fervor, 
spoke these words: ' Thanks, thanks be to thee, thou great Lord 
of the world, in that thou hast again caused the sun to shine, 
and hast dispersed the dark cloud ! The Indians are thine.' "* 

Among the first settlers in Aughwick Valley was Captain 
Jack, certainly one of the most noted characters of his day. 
He flourished about Augliwick between 1750 and 1755, 
when, with two or three companions, he went to the Juniata 
and built himself a cabin near a beautiful spring. His sole 
pursuit it would appear, was hunting and fishing; by which 
he procured the means of subsistence for his family. There 
was a mystery about him which no person ever succeeded in 
fathoming, and even his companions never learned his history 
or his real name. 

He was a man of almost Herculean proportions, with ex- 
tremely swarthy complexion. In fact, he was supposed by 
some to be a half-breed and by otliers a quadroon. Colonel 
Armstrong, in a letter to the governor, called liim the "Half- 
Indian." The truth of it, however^ is that he was a white 
man, possessing a more than ordinary share of intelligence 
for a backwoodsman, but his early history is altogether 

* See note A Appendix. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 135 

shrouded in mystery. It appears that in the summer of 
1752 Captain Jack and his companions were on a fishing 
excursion. Returning late in the evening, Jack found his 
cabin in ruins and his wife and two children murdered. 
From that moment he became an altered man, quit the 
haunts of men, and roamed the woods alone, sleeping in 
caves, hollow logs, or wherever he could find a shelter. The 
loss of his family, no doubt, crazed him for a time, as he did 
not appear among the settlers until the fall of 1753. In the 
interim, however, he was frequently seen, and, we may add, 
frequently /c^i, by the savages, but he studiously avoided all 
intercourse with his fellow-men. If we may judge of his 
subsequent career, there is every reason to believe that on 
the discovery of the wrongs done him by the savages he 
made a vow to devote the balance of his life to slaying In- 
dians. If he did, right faithfully was his vow kept, for his 
fame spread far and wide among the red-skins, and many a 
one bit the dust by his trusty rifle and unerring aim. The 
settlers about Aughwick, as well as those in Path Valley and 
along the river, frequently found dead savages, some in a 
state of partial decay, and others with their flesh stripped by 
the bald-eagles and their bones bleaching in the sun on the 
spot where Jack's rifle had laid them low. 

On one occasion Captain Jack had concealed himself in 
the woods by the side of the Aughwick Path, where he lay 
in wait for a stray Indian. Presently a painted warrior, 
with a red feather waving from his head and his body be- 
dizened with gewgaws recently purchased from a trader, 
came down the path. A crack from Captain Jack's rifle and 
the savage bounded into the air and fell dead without a groan 
in the path. It appears that three others were in company, 
but had tarried at a spring, who, on hearing the discharge 
of the rifle, under the impression that their companion had 
shot a deer or bear, gave a loud " whoop." Captain Jack 
immediately loaded, and when the Indians came up to the 
dead body Jack again shot, and killed a second one. The 
Indians then rushed into the thicket, and one of them, get- 



136 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

ting a glimpse of Jack, shot at him, but missed liim. The 
wild hunter, seeing that the chances were desperate, jumped 
out and engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter — the fourth 
savage being only armed with a tomahawk. He soon dis- 
patched the third one by beating his brains out with his rifle; 
but the fourth one, an athletic fellow, grappled, and a long 
and bloody fight with knives followed, and only ceased when 
both were exhausted by the loss of blood. The Indian 
managed to get away, and left the Black Hunter the victor 
on the field of battle. Weak and faint as Jack was, he 
scalped the three savages, fixed their scalps upon bushes 
overhanging the path, and then, without deigning to touch 
their gewgaws or their arms, he managed to work his way 
to the settlement, where his wounds, consisting of eight or 
ten stabs, were dressed. The settlers, then squatters, cared 
little about the loss of the Indians, since they deemed it right 
for Captain Jack to wreak his vengeance on any and every 
savage whom chance should throw in his way; and so little 
did they care about the proprietors knowing their where- 
abouts tliat no report of the case was ever made to the gov- 
ernment of this combat. 

It is said that one night the family of an Irishman named 
Moore, residing in Aughwick, was suddenly awakened by the 
report of a gun. This unusual circumstance at such a late 
hour in the night caused them to get up to discover the 
cause; and on opening the door they found a dead Indian 
lying upon the very threshold. By the feeble light which 
shone through the door they discovered the dim outline of 
the wild hunter, who merely said "I have saved your lives," 
and then plunged into the dark ravine and disappeared." 

With an eye like the eagle, an aim that was unerring, 
daring intrepidity, and a constitution that could brave the 
heat of summer as well as the frosts of winter, he roamed 
the valley like an uncaged tiger, the most formidable foe 
that ever crossed the red man's path. Various were the 
plans and stratagems resorted to by the Indians to capture 
him, but they all proved unavailing. He fought them upon 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 137 

their own ground, with their own weapons, and against them 
adopted their own merciless and savage mode of warfare. 
In stratagem he was an adept, and in the skillful use of the 
rifle his superior probably did not exist in his day or gener- 
ation. 

These qualifications not only made him a terror to the In- 
dians, but made him famous among the settlers, who for their 
own protectipn formed a scout, or company of rangers, and 
tendered to Captain Jack the command, which he accepted. 
This company was uniformed like Indians, with hunting- 
shirts, leather leggings, and moccasins, and, as they were not 
acting under sanction of government, styled themselves " Cap- 
tain Jack's Hunters." All the hunting done, however, after se- 
curing game to supply their wants, was probably confined to 
hunting for scalps of Indians; and, as it was a penal offence 
then to occupy the hunting-grounds of the Juniata Valley, 
much more so to shed the blood of any of the savages, it is 
not likely that the hunters ever funished the Quaker proprie- 
tors with an official list of the " killed and wounded." These 
exploits gave Captain Jack a number of names or sobriquets 
in the absence of his real name ; he was known as the " Black 
Rifle," '' Black Hunter," " Wild Hunter of the Juniata," &c. 
On one occasion, with his band, he followed a party of ma- 
rauding Indians to the Conococheague, and put them to 
rout. This act reached the authorities in Philadelphia, arid 
Governor Hamilton granted him a sort of irregular roving 
commission to hold in check the unfriendly Indians of the 
frontier. With this authority he routed the savages from the 
Cove and several other places, and the general fear he in- 
spired among them no doubt prevented a deal of mischief 
in the Juniata Valley. 

Early in June, Captain Jack offered the services of him- 
self and his band of hunters to government to accompany 
Braddock on his expedition against Fort Duquesne. His 
merits were explained to Braddock by George Crogan, who 
said, " They are well armed, and are equally regardless of 
heat or cold. They require no shelter for the night, and ask 



138 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

710 payy This generous offer on the part of Captain Jack 
was not accepted by Braddock, because, as he alleged, " the 
proffered services were coupled with certain stipulations to 
which he could not consent." What these stipulations were 
was not mentioned. It is presumed, however, that Captain 
Jack wished his company to go as a volunteer force, free 
from the restraints of a camp life which a rigid disciplinarian 
like Braddock would be likely to adopt. Braddock had al- 
ready accepted the services of a company of Indians under 
George Crogan, and, as he wished to gain laurels for himself 
and his troops by achieving a victory over the French and 
Indians by open European fighting, his own selfishness 
prompted him to refuse the assistance of any more who 
adopted the skulking Indian mode of warfare. He did not 
live, however, to discover his error. Hazzard, in his Penn- 
sylvania Register, in speaking of the non-acceptance of Cap- 
tain Jack's offer, says, " It was a great misfortune for Brad- 
dock that he neglected to secure the services of such an aux- 
iliary." Very true ; for such men as Jack's Hunters would 
never have suffered themselves to be fired upon by an am- 
buscaded enemy or an enemy hid away in a ravine. They 
would not have marched over the hill with drums beating 
and colors flying, in pride and pomp, as if enjoying a vic- 
tory not yet won ; but they would have had their scouts out, 
the enemy and his position known, and the battle fought 
without any advantages on either side ; and in such an event 
it is more than probable that victory would have crowned 
the expedition. 

Of the final end of Captain Jack we have nothing definite. 
One account says he went to the West ; another that he died 
an old man in 1772, havine; lived the life of a hermit after 
the end of the war of 1763. It is said that his bones rest 
near the spring, at the base of the mountain bearing his 
name ; and this we are inclined to believe. The early set- 
tlers of the neighborhood believed that Captain Jack came 
down from the mountain every night at twelve o'clock to 
slake his thirst at his favorite spring ; and half a century 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 139 

ago we might readily have produced the affidavits of twenty 
respectable men who had seen the Black Hunter in the spirit 
roaming over the land that was his in the flesh. The pres- 
ent generation, however, knows little about the wild hunter. 
Still, though he sleeps the sleep that knows no waking, and 
no human being who ever saw him is above the sod now, the 
towering mountain, a hundred miles in length, bearing his 
name, will stand as an indistructable monument to his 
memory until time shall be no more. 

George Crogan figured extensively about Augliwick for 
many years, both before and after Fort Shirley was built. 
He was an Irishman by birth, and came to the colony pro- 
bably as early as 1742, and soon after took up the business 
of an Indian trader. At first he located at Harris's trading- 
house, on the Susquehanna, and from thence moved over the 
river into Cumberland county, some eight miles from his 
first place of abode. From there he made excursions to 
Path Valley and Aughwick, and finally to the Ohio River 
by way of the old Bedford trail. His long residence among 
the Indians not onl}^ enabled him to study Indian character 
thoroughly, but he acquired the language of both the Dela- 
ware and Shawnee tribes, and was of great use to the pro- 
prietary government ; but we incline to the opinion that his 
services were illy requited. 

His first letter, published in the Colonial Records, is dated 
"May y^ 26th, 1747," and is directed to Richard Peters. It 
was accompanied by a letter from the Six Nations, some 
wampum, and a French scalp, taken somewhere on Lake 
Erie. 

In a letter from Governor Hamilton to Governor Hardy, 
dated 5th July, 1756, in speaking of Crogan, who was at one 
time suspected of being a spy in the pay of the French, 
Hamilton says: — "There were many Indian traders with 
Brad dock — Crogan among others, who acted as a captain of 
the Indians under a warrant from General Braddock, and I 
never heard of any objections to his conduct in that capac- 
ity. For many years he had been very largely concerned 



140 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

in the Ohio trade, was upon that river frequently, and had 
a considerable influence among the Indians, speaking the 
language of several nations, and being very liberal, or rather 
profuse, in his gifts to them, which, with the losses he sus- 
tained by the French, who seized great quantities of his 
goods, and by not getting the debts due to him from the 
Indians, he became bankrupt, and has since lived at a place 
called Aughwick, in the back parts of this province, where 
he generally had a number of Indians with him, for the 
maintenance of whom the province allowed him sums of 
money from time to time, but not to his satisfaction. After 
this he went, by my order, with these Indians, and joined 
General Braddock,who gave the warrant I have mentioned. 
Since Braddock's defeat, he returned to x4.ughwick, where he 
remained till an act of assembl}'^ was passed here granting 
him freedom from arrest for ten years. This was done that 
the province might have the benefit of his knowledge of the 
woods and his influence among the Indians; and imme- 
diately thereupon, while I was last at York, a captain's com- 
mission was given to him, and he was ordered to raise men 
for the defence of the western frontier, which he did in a 
very expeditious manner, but not so frugally as the com- 
missioners for disposing of the public money thought he 
might have done. He continued in the command of one 
of the companies he had raised, and of Fort Shirley, on the 
western frontier, about three months; during which time he 
sent, by my direction, Indian messengers to the Ohio for in- 
telligence, but never produced me any that was very mate- 
rial; and, having a dispute with the commissioners about 
some accounts between them, in which he thought himself 
ill-used, he resigned his commission, and about a month ago 
informed me that he had not received pay upon General 
Braddock's warrant, and desired my recommendation to 
General Shirley; which I gave him, and he set ofl' directly 
for Albany; and I hear he is now at Onondago with Sir 
William Johnston." 

Crogan settled permanently in Aughwick in 1754, and 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 141 

built a stockade fort, and must have been some kind of an 
agent among the Indians, disbursing presents to them for 
the government. In December of that year he wrote to 
Secretary Peters, stating the wants of his Indians, and at 
the same time wrote to Governor Morris as follows: — 

''May it please your honor: — 

" I am Oblig** to advertize the Inhabitance of Cumberland 
county in y"" honour's Name, nott to barter or Sell Spiretus Li- 
quers to the Indians or any person to bring amongst them, to 
prevent y° Indians from Spending there Cloase, tho' I am 
oblig*^ to give them a kag Now and then my self for a frolick, 
but that is Atended with no Expence to y' Government, nor no 
bad consequences to y^ Indians as I do itt butt onst a Month. 
I hope your honour will approve of this Proceeding, as I have 
Don itt to Prevent ill consequences atending y' Indians if they 
should be Kept always Infleam*^ with Liquors." 

In September, 1754, notwithstanding the precautions taken 
by the government to conciliate the Indians by profuse pres- 
ents, and immediately after Conrad Weiser, the Indian inter- 
preter, and Crogan, had held a conference at Aughwick, 
which it was supposed had terminated satisfactorily to all 
parties concerned, an Indian, named Israel, of the Six Na- 
tions, after leaving the conference, perpetrated a brutal mur- 
der in Tuscarora Valley. The following is Crogan's report 
of it to government : — 

Aughwick, September 17, 175If. 
May it please Your Honor : — 

Since Mr. Weiser left this, an Indian of the Six Nations, named 
Israel, killed one Joseph Cample, an Indian trader, at the house 
of one Anthony Thompson, at the foot of the Tuscarora Valley, 
near Parnall's Knob. As soon as I heard it I went down to 
Thompson's, and took several of the chiefs of the Indians with 
me, when I met William Maxwell, Esq. The Indian made his 
escape before I got there. I took the qualification of the per- 
sons who were present at the murder, and delivered them to Mr. 
Maxwell, to be sent to your honor, with the speech made by the 



142 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

chiefs of the Indians on that occasion, which I suppose your 
honor has received. 

I have heard many accounts from Ohio since Mr. Weiser left 
this, all of which agree that the French have received a rein- 
forcement of men and provision from Canada to the fort. An 
Indian returned yesterday to this place whom I had sent to the 
fort for intelligence; he confirms the above accounts, and further 
says there were about sixty French Indians had come while he 
stayed there, and that they expected better than two hundred 
more every day. He says that the French design to send those 
Indians with some French, in several parties, to annoy the back 
settlements, which the French say will put a stop to any English 
forces marching out this fall to attack them. The Indian like- 
wise says that the French will do their endeavor to have the 
half-king Scarrayooday, Captain Montour, and myself, killed 
this fall. This Indian, I think, is to be believed, if there can be 
any credit given to what an Indian says. He presses me strongly 
to leave this place, and not live in any of the back parts. The 
scheme of sending several parties to annoy the back settlements 
seems so much like French policy that I can't help thinking it 
true. 

I hear from Colonel Innes that there certainly have been some 
French Indians at the camp at Will's Creek, who fired on the 
sentry in the dead of night. If the French prosecute this 
scheme, I don't know what will become of the back parts of 
Cumberland county, which is much exposed. The back parts 
of Virginia and Maryland are covered by the English Camp, so 
that most of the inhabitants are safe. 

I would have written to yoilr honor before now on this head; 
I only waited the return of this Indian messenger, whose account 
I really think is to be depended on. The Indians here seem 
very uneasy at their long stay, as they have heard nothing from 
the Governor of Virginia nor of your honor since Mr. Weiser 
went away ; nor do they see the English making any preparations 
to attack the French, which seems to give them a great deal of 
concern. I believe several of the Indians will soon go to the 
Six Nation country, and then, I suppose, the rest will be obliged 
to fall in with the French. If this happens, then all the back 
settlements will be left to the mercy of an outrageous enemy. 



HISTOKY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 143 

I beg your honor's pardon for mentioning the consequences 
which must certainly attend the slow motion of the English 
government, as they are well known to your honor, and I am 
sensible your honor had done all in your power for the security 
of those parts. I hope as soon as his honor, Governor Morris, 
is arrived, I shall hear what is to be done with those Indians. 
I assure your honor it will not be in my power to keep them 
together much longer. 

I am your honor's most humble and most obedient servant, 

Geo. Crogan. 

The Indian Israel was arrested, taken to Philadelphia, 
and tried, but, in consequence of the critical situation of 
affairs, the French having tampered with the Six Nations 
until they were wavering, he was let off, returned to his 
tribe, and the matter smoothed over as best it could under 
the circumstances. 

The number of Indians under Crogan at Braddock's de- 
feat was thirty ; but what part they performed on that event- 
ful day was not recorded. That Crogan and his Indians 
were of some service would appear from the fact that the 
Assembly passed a law exempting him from arrests — for 
debt, it is supposed — for ten years, and commissioned him a 
captain in the colonial service. 

The supposition that Crogan was a spy in the pay of the 
French was based upon the idea that he was a Roman Cath- 
olic, inasmuch as he was born in Dublin. His loyalty w^as 
first brought into question by Governor Sharpe, in Decem- 
ber, 1753, who wrote to Governor Hamilton, informing him 
that the French knew every move for defence made in the 
colonies, and asked his opinion of Crogan. In answer, Gov- 
ernor Hamilton said : — 

I observe what you say of Mr. Crogan; and, though the sev- 
eral matters of which you have received information carry in 
them a good deal of suspicion, and it may be highly necessary 
to keep a watchful eye upon him, yet I hope they will not turn 
out to be any thing very material, or that will effect his faithful- 
ness to the trust reposed in him, which, at this time, is of great 



144 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

importance and a very considerable one. At present I have no 
one to inquire of as to the truth of the particulars mentioned in 
yours but Mr. Peters, who assures me that Mr. Crogan has never 
been deemed a Roman Catholic, nor does he believe that he is 
one, though he knows not his education, which was in Dublin, 
nor his religious profession. 

Whatever Mr. Crogan's religious faith may have been, he 
paid much less attention to it than he did to Indian affairs; 
and that he was deeply devoted to the proprietary govern- 
ment is evident from his subsequent career. To keep the 
Indians loyal, he advanced many presents to them, as ap- 
pears by Governor Morris's letter to Governor Hardy, for 
which he never was reimbursed ; and the company of Indians 
he commanded was fitted out at his own expense; and it 
was the attempt to get what he advanced on that occasion 
that led to his quarrel with the commissioners and his resig- 
nation. 

From Philadelphia he went to Onondago, in September, 
1756, and soon after was appointed deputy-agent of Indian 
affairs by Sir William Johnston. On his arrival in Phila- 
delphia, his appointment was announced to the council by 
Governor Denny. 

"The council, knowing Mr. Crogan's circumstances, was 
not a little surprised at the appointment, and desired to see 
his credentials;" which he produced, and again took an ac- 
tive part in Indian affairs. 

After the French had evacuated Fort Duquesne, in 1758, 
Crogan resided for a time at Fort Pitt. From there he went 
down the river, and was taken prisoner by the French, and 
taken to Detroit. From thence he returned to New York, 
where he died in 1782. 

On the 6th of October, 1754, the reigning chief of Augh- 
wick, called Tanacharrisan, or Half-King, died at Paxton. 
In communicating his death to the governor, John Harris 
said : — 

Those Indians that are here blame the French for his death by 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 145 

bewitching him, as they had a conjurer to inquire into the cause 
a few days before he died ; and it is his opinion, together with 
his relation, that the French have been the cause of their great 
man's death, by reason of his striking them lately; for which 
they seem to threaten immediate revenge, and desire me to let it 
be known. 

The loss of the Half-King must have been a severe afflic- 
tion to his tribe, for it appears by a letter of Crogan's that 
he was compelled to " wipe away their tears to the amount 
of thirty pounds fourteen shillings." 

Scarroyady* succeeded the Half-King in the administra- 
tion of affairs at Aughwick. He was a brave and powerful 
chief, and possessed the most unbounded influence among 
the Indians. Governor Morris, in a speech, previously ap- 
proved by council, made to Scarroyady and some Indians 
accompanying him, said : — 

" Brethren : — For the encouragement of you and all who will 
join you in the destruction of our enemies, I propose to give the 
following bounties or rewards, viz : for every male Indian prisoner 
above twelve years old that shall be delivered at any of the 
government's forts or towns, one hundred and fifty dollars. 

"For every female Indian prisoner or male prisoner of twelve 
years old and under, delivered as above, one hundred and thirty 
dollars. 

"For the scalp of every male Indian of above twelve years 
old one hundred and thirty dollars. 

"For the scalp of every Indian woman, fifty dollars." 

Let this fixed price for scalps not stand upon the pages of 
history as a stigma against the peaceable and non-resistant 
Quakers of the province ; for, at the time these bounties were 
offered, John and Thomas Penn had adjured the habits, cus- 
toms, and religion of that people. 

Fort Shirley was built in Aughwick Valley in the fall of 

*As the Indians could not pronounce the letter r, it is probable that the 
names having such letters in were bestowed by the whites, or corrupted bj 
them. 

10 



146 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

1755, and the winter following Crogan resigned his commis- 
sion, afier which the command was given to Captain Hugh 
Mercer. 

Tradition says that one or two very serious battles were 
fought in Aughwick, after Fort Shirley was erected; but 
the accounts of them are so vague that we can give nothing 
like reliable information touching them. 

In January, 1756, two Indians named Lackin, brothers, 
who professed to be friendly, came to what was then still 
called Crogan's Fort. The commander of the fort made 
them some few trifling presents, and plied them well with 
rum, when they promised to bring in a large number of 
prisoners and scalps. On leaving the fort, they fell in with 
a soldier, whom they invited to accompany them a short dis- 
tance and they would give him some rum. To this the sol- 
dier assented, and, after getting out of sight of the fort, one 
of them suddenly turned and stabbed the soldier in the side 
with a scalping-knife. A man passing at the time of the 
occurrence immediately alarmed the garrison, and a posse 
of thirteen men sallied out ; but when they came up near the 
Indians the latter suddenly turned and fired upon the sol- 
diers, wounding one of them in the thigh. The savages 
were then surrounded, and one of them shot; the other they 
attempted to take to the fort alive, but he acted so outrage- 
ously that one of the soldiers beat his brains out with the 
stock of his musket. The Lackins were rather worthless 
fellows, and it required no wampum, or even coin, to dry 
up the tears of their friends. 

Fort Shirley was abandoned for a while after the burning 
of Fort Granville, by order of Governor Morris, but the 
importance of the point prevented it from standing idle 
long. We hear of some few murders committed near the 
Three Springs of the valley at a later day, but no attack was 
made in the neighborhood during the second Indian war, as 
the entire valley was well protected by the friendly Indians 
of the Six Nations. 

The Delawares and Shawnees, or at least a great portion of 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 147 

them, left the valley in 1754-55-56, and before 1761 all 
had disappeared. But to the friendly Indian the beautiful 
Aughwick was a favorite haunt until the Anglo-Saxon fairly 
ploughed and harro.wed him out of his home and his hunt- 
ing-grounds. The last of the Six Nations left Aughwick for 
Cattaraugus in 1771. 



148 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER XII. 

RAYSTOWN BRANCH — EARLY SETTLEMENT OF RAYSTOWN — GENERAL 
FORBES'S EXPEDITION — COLONELS WASHINGTON AND BOQUET — COLO- 
NEL Armstrong's letter — smith and his black boys — bloody 

BUN — robbery — INDIAN MASSACRES — REVOLUTIONARY LIEUTEN- 
ANTS OF BEDFORD COUNTY, ETC. 

/-^LHE earliest settlement on the Raystown Branch of the 
Mm Juniata was made by a man named Ray, in 1751, who 
^"P built three cabins near where Bedford now stands. In 
1755 the province agreed to open a wagon-road from Fort 
Louden, in Cumberland county, to the forks of the Yough- 
iogheny River. For this purpose three hundred men were 
sent up, but for some cause or other the project was aban- 
doned. 

This road was completed in 1758, when the allied forces of 
Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania marched against Fort 
Duquesne, under General John Forbes. About the same year 
the fort was built at Raystown, and called Fort Bedford. Colo- 
nels Boquet and Washington first marched to Bedford with 
the advance, and were followed by General Forbes, who had 
been detained by illness at Carlisle. The successful troops 
that put to rout the French without striking a blow, amount- 
ing to 7,850 men, were reviewed, where Bedford now stands, 
a little ever ninety-seven years ago. Of the triumphant march 
and the bloodless victory of General Forbes and Colonels 
Boquet and Washington there is little use in speaking here, 
more than incidentally mentioning that, profiting by the 
dear-bought experience at Braddock's defeat, the suggestion 
of Washington to fight the savages after their own manner 
was adopted, and, after defeating them in several skirmishes, 
the Indians fled before them like chaff before the wind, and 
when they reached Fort Duquesne the name and the fort 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 149 

alone remained. The latter was preserved, but the former 
was speedily changed to Fort Pitt. 

Colonel Armstrong, whose name has already frequently 
appeared, served as a captain in the expedition under Gen- 
eral Forbes against Fort Duquesne. It may also be as well 
to remember that Colonel Washington, as well as the Virgin- 
ians generally, jealous of the Pennsylvanians gaining a foot- 
ing in the Monongahela country, violently opposed the cut- 
ting of the road from Raystown to the mouth of the Yough, 
and urged strongly upon Forbes the propriety of using the 
old Braddock trail. The decision of General Forbes pro- 
cured for the people of Pennsylvania a wagon-road over the 
Alleghany at least twenty years before the inhabitants would 
have entertained the idea of so formidable an undertaking. 
Armstrong wrote to Richard Peters, under date of " Rays- 
town, October 3, 1758," from whose letter we extract the fol- 
lowing : — 

Since our Quixotic expedition you will, no doubt, be greatly 
perplexed about our fate. God knows what it may be ; but, I 
assure you, the better part of the troops are not at all dismayed. 
The general came here at a critical and seasonable juncture ; he is 
weak, but his spirit is good and his head clear, firmly determined 
to proceed as far as force and provisions will admit, which, through 
divine favor, will be far enough. The road to be opened from 
our advanced post is not yet fully determined, and must be fur- 
ther reconnoitered ; 'tis yet a query whether the artillery will be 
carried forward with the army when within fifteen or twenty 
miles of the fort or not. The order of march and line of battle 
is under consideration, and there are many difi'erent opinions 
respecting it. Upon this the general will have a conference with 
the commanders of the sundry corps. About four thousand five 
hundred are yet fit for duty, five or six hundred of which may 
yet be laid to the account of keeping of different posts, sickness, 
accidents, &c. We know not the number of the enemy, but they 
are greatly magnified, by report of sundry of the people with Ma- 
jor Grant, to what we formerly expected. The Virginians are 
much chagrined at the opening of the road through this govern- 
ment, and Colonel Washington has been a good deal sanguine 



150 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

and obstinate upon the occasion ; but the presence of the gen- 
eral has been of great use on this as well as other accounts. We 
hear that three hundred wagons are on the road. If this month 
happens to be dry weather, it will be greatly in our favor. My 
people are in general healthy, and are to be CDllected together 
immediately, except such as are posted on the communication 
and in the artillery. Many of them w^ill be naked by the end of 
the campaign, but I dare not enter upon clothing them, not know- 
ing who or how many of the troops may be continued. Colonel 

B 1 is a very sensible and useful man; notwithstanding, 

had not the general come up, the consequences would have 
been dangerous. Please to make my compliments to Mr. Allen, 
and, if you please, show him this letter, as I have not a moment 
longer to write. About the last of this month will be the crit- 
ical hour. Every thing is vastly dear with us, and the mon- 
ey goes like old boots. The enemy are beginning to kill and 
carry off horses, and every now and then they scalp a wandering 
person. 

I leave this place to-day, as does Colonel Boquet and some 
pieces of the artillery. 

In 1763, Fort Bedford was the principal depot for military 
stores between Carlisle and Fort Pitt. In order to strengthen 
it, the command was given to Captain Ourry, and the small 
stockades at the Juniata Crossing and Stony Creek were 
abandoned and the force concentrated at Bedford. By this 
means two volunteer companies were formed to guard the 
fort, which, besides being a refuge for the distressed families 
for ten or fifteen miles around, contained vast quantities of 
ammunition and other government stores. 

In 17G3, Colonel Boquet again passed up the Raystown 
Branch with two regiments of regulars and a large convoy 
of military stores, to relieve the beleaguered garrison at Fort 
Pitt. He found matters in a deplorable condition at Fort 
Bedford. The Indians, although they had never made an 
attack upon the fort, had for weeks been hovering around 
the frontier settlements, and had killed, scalped, or taken 
prisoner, no less than eighteen persons. This induced Colo- 
nel Boquet to leave two companies of his army at Bedford. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 151 

The names of the persons killed or taken prisoners at that 
time are not recorded, and, we regret to say, few of any of 
the particulars connected therewith have been preserved. 

The town of Bedford was laid out by John Lukens, the 
surveyor-general, in 1766, and took its name (in honor of 
the Duke of Bedford) from the fort. The town for many 
years was the most prominent point between Carlisle and 
Pittsburg. The county was formed out of Cumberland, in 
1771, and embraced a vast extent of territory, from which 
Huntingdon, Mifflin, Cambria, Somerset, Westmoreland, 
Fulton, and Indiana, were subsequently taken. 

During the Revolutionary war, the town of Bedford proper, 
as well as the surrounding country, was so well settled that 
the Indians kept a respectful distance. On Yellow Creek, 
one of the tributaries of Raystown Branch, settlements were 
made at an early day ; also in the Great Cove. During the 
Revolution, Colonel John Piper, of Yellow Creek, was the 
lieutenant-colonel of the county, and George Ashman lieu- 
tenant, and James Martin, Edward Combs, and Robert Cul- 
bertson, were sub-lieutenants. 

Colonel James Smith, whose narrative has been published 
in several works, was taken by the Indians in 1755, near 
Bedford. . He was taken to Fort Duquesne, and was there 
when the victorious Frenchmen and savages returned with 
the scalps and plunder taken from Braddock's vanquished 
army. After undergoing some severe trials, such as running 
the gauntlet, &c., Smith was taken to Ohio, and, after a cer- 
emony of baptising, painting, and hair-pulling, he was 
adopted, as a warrior "in good standing," into the Conowago 
tribe. No other resort being left, as a measure of self-defence 
he adopted the manners and customs of the tribe, and wan- 
dered over the West with them until an opportunity offered 
to escape ; which did not occur until he reached Montreal, 
in 1760, when he obtained his freedom in the general ex- 
change of prisoners which took place. 

In 1765, Smith figured conspicuously in Bedford county, 
as the leader of the celebrated band of " Black Boys" whose 



152 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

singular and summary administration of justice bore a 
marked affinity to the code sometimes adopted by that 
worthy disseminator of criminal jurisprudence in the West, 
" Judge Lynch." Of the exploits of the famous Black Boys 
Smith speaks as follows: — 

Shortly after this (1764) the Indians stole horses and killed 
some people on the frontiers. The king's proclamation was then 
circulating, and set up in various public places, prohibiting any 
person from trading with the Indians until further orders. 

Notwithstanding all this, about the first of March, 1765, a 
number of wagons loaded with Indian goods and warlike stores, 
were sent from Philadelphia to Henry Pollens, Conococheague ; 
and from thence seventy pack-horses were loaded with these 
goods, in order to carry them to Fort Pitt. This alarmed the 
country, and Mr. William Duffield raised about fifty armed men, 
and met the pack-hoises at the place where Mercersburg now 
stands. Mr. Duffield desired the employers to store up their 
goods and not proceed until further orders. They made light of 
this, and went over to North Mountain, where they lodged in a 
small valley called the Great Cove. Mr. Duffield and his party 
followed after, and came to their lodging, and again urged them 
to store up their goods. He reasoned with them on the impro- 
priety of their proceedings and the great danger the frontier in- 
habitants would be exposed to if the Indians should now get a 
supply. He said as it was well known that they had scarcely 
any ammunition, and were almost naked, to supply them now 
would be a kind of murder, and would be illegally trading at 
the expense of the blood and treasure of the frontiers. Not- 
withstanding his powerful reasoning, these traders made game 
of what he said, and would only answer him by ludicrous bur- 
lesque. 

When I beheld this, and found that Mr. Duffield could not 
compel them to store up their goods, I collected ten of my old 
warriors that I had formerly disciplined in the Indian way, went 
off privately in the night, and encamped in the woods. The 
next day, as usual, we blacked and painted, and waylaid them 
near Sideling Hill. I scattered my men about forty rods along the 
side of the road, and ordered every two to take a tree, and about 
eight or ten rods between each couple, with orders to keep a re- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 153 

serve fire — one not to fire until his comrade had loaded his gun. 
By this means we kept a constant slow fire upon them, from 
front to rear. We then heard nothing of these traders' merri- 
ment or burlesque. When they saw their pack-horses falling 
close by them, they called out, " Pray, gentlemen, what would 
you have us to do?" The reply was, " Collect all your loads to 
the front, and unload them in one place ; take your private prop- 
erty, and immediately retire." When they were gone, we burnt 
what they left, which consisted of blankets, shirts, vermilion, 
lead, beads, wampum, tomahawks, scalping-knives, &c. 

The traders went back to Fort Louden, and applied to the 
commanding officer there, and got a party of Highland soldiers, 
and went with them in quest of the robbers, as they called us; 
and, without applying to a magistrate or obtaining any civil au- 
thority, but purely upon suspicion, they took a number of cred- 
itable persons, (who were chiefly not anyway concerned in this 
action,) and confined them in the guard-house in Fort Louden. 
I then raised three hundred riflemen, marched to Fort Louden, 
and encamped on a hill in sight of the fort. We were not long 
there until we had more than double as many of the British 
troops prisoners in our camp as they had of our people in the 
guard-house. Captain Grant, a Highland officer who com- 
manded Fort Louden, then sent a flag of truce to our camp, 
where we settled a cartel and gave them above two for one 
which enabled us to redeem all our men from the guard-house 
without further difficulty. 

This exploit of the Black Boys is supposed to have given 
Bloody Run its name. Soon after, some British officer wrote 
an account of the affair and transmitted it to London, where 
it was published, and from which the following is an extract. 
" The convoy of eighty horses, loaded with goods, chiefly on 
His Majesty's account, as presents to the Indians, and part 
on account of Indian traders, were surprised in a narrow 
and dangerous defile in the mountains by a body of armed 
men. A number of horses were killed, and the whole of the 
goods were carried away by the plunderers. The rivulet was 
dyed with blood, and ran into the settlement below, carrying with it 
the stain of crime upon its surface." 



154 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Notwithstanding Smith's narrative may have been read 
by a majority of our readers, we cannot resist the temptation 
of transferring another graphic picture of frontier life from 
his work. He saj's : — 

In the year 1769, the Indians again made incursions on the 
frontiers; yet the traders continued carrying goods and warhke 
stores to them. The frontiers took the alarm, and a number of 
persons collected, destroyed, and plundered, a quantity of their 
powder, lead, &c., in Bedford county. Shortly after this, some 
of these persons, with others, were apprehended and laid in 
irons in the guard-house in Fort Bedford, on suspicion of being 
the perpetrators of this crime. 

Though I did not altogether approve of the conduct of this 
new club of Black Boys, yet I concluded that they should not 
lie in irons in the guard-house or remain in confinement by ar- 
bitrary or mihtary power. I resolved, therefore, if possible, to 
release them, if they even should be tried by the civil law after- 
ward. I collected eighteen of my old Black Boys that I had 
seen tried in the Indian war, &c. I did not desire a large party, 
lest they should be too much alarmed at Bedford, and accord- 
ingly be prepared for us. We marched along the public road in 
daylight, and made no secret of our design. We told those 
whom we met that we were going to take Fort Bedford, which 
appeared to them a very unlikely story. Before this, I made it 
known to one William Thompson, a man whom I could trust, and 
who lived there. Him I employed as a spy, and sent him along on 
horseback before, with orders to meet me at a certain place near 
Bedford one hour before day. The next day, a little before sun- 
set, we encamped near the Crossings of Juniata, about fourteen 
miles from Bedford, and erected tents, as though we intended 
staying all night; and not a man in my company knew to the 
contrary save myself. Knowing that they would hear this in 
Bedford, and wishing it to be the case, I thought to surprise 
them by stealing a march. 

As the moon rose about eleven o'clock, I ordered my boys to 
march, and we went on at the rate of five miles an hour, until 
we met Thompson at the place appointed. He told us that the 
commanding officer had frequently heard of us by travelers, and 
had ordered thirty men upon guard. He said he knew our 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 155 

number, and only made game of the notion of eighteen men 
coming to rescue the prisoners ; but they did not expect us until 
toward the middle of the day. I asked him if the gate was 
open. He said it was then shut, but he expected they would 
open it, as usual, at daylight, as they apprehended no danger. 
I then moved my men privately up under the banks of the Ju 
niata, where we lay concealed about one hundred yards from 
the fort gate. I had ordered the men to keep a profound silence 
until we got into it. I then sent off Thompson again to spy. 
At daylight he returned and told us that the gate was open, and 
three sentinels were standing upon the wall ; that the guards 
were taking a morning dram, and the arms standing together in 
one place. I then concluded to rush into the fort, and told 
Thompson to run before me to the arms. We ran with all our 
might ; and, as it was a misty morning, the sentinels scarcely 
saw us until we were within the gate and took possession of the 
arms. Just as we were entering, two of them discharged their 
guns, though I do not believe they aimed at us. We then raised 
a shout, which surprised the town, though some of them were 
well pleased with the news. We compelled a blacksmith to take 
the irons off the prisoners, and then we left the place. This, I 
believe, was the first British fort in America that was taken by 
what they call American rebels. 

For this exploit Smith was arrested, and, in the scuffle 
which attended the arrest — for he made a powerful resist- 
ance, — one of his captors was shot. He was taken to Car- 
lisle and tried for murder; but, having the sympathies of 
the people with him, he was triumphantly acquitted. He 
afterward filled several important stations, and for a time 
served as a colonel in the Revolutionary army in New Jer- 
sey. In 1778 he moved to Kentucky, and joined Mcintosh 
in his efforts against the savages. He had evidently im- 
bibed the habits of frontier life so thoroughly that the strict 
routine of military discipline and its restraints were totally 
unsuited to his ideas of fighting. 

After the year 1769, numerous robberies were committed 
near Bedford. The robbers taking the precaution to blacken 
their faces, all their crimes, as well as many others, were 



156 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

charged upon Smith's Black Boys, until they were looked 
upon as a band of outlaws. Under date of January 26, 1773> 
John Frazer and George Woods wrote from Bedford to Gov- 
ernor Penn, as follows : — 

May it "please Your Honor : — 

The many robberies that have lately been committed in the 
eastern parts of this county oblige us to trouble you with this 
letter. 

There are a number of people, who, we suspect, now reside at 
or near the Sideling Hill, that have been guilty of several high- 
way-robberies, and have taken from different people — travelling 
on the public road between this place and Carlisle — considerable 
sums of money; in particular, a certain James McCashlan, of 
this place, hath made oath before us that he has been robbed of 
twenty-two pounds and a silver watch. We have already done 
our endeavor to apprehend the robbers, but have not succeeded, 
as there can be no positive proof made who they are, on account 
of their blacking themselves, which renders it impossible for any 
person robbed to discover or know who are the perpetrators. 

We, therefore, pray your honor would take this matter into 
consideration, and grant us such relief as your honor may seem 
most reasonable for the safety of the public in general, and in 
particular for the inhabitants of this county. 

These magistrates labored under the conviction that the 
highwaymen were none else than a portion of Smith's gang 
of Black Boys; or else why ask government for aid to dis- 
perse a few robbers, when men, arms, and ammunition, were 
plenty in Bedford? 

The letter of Frazer and Woods was accompanied by an 
affidavit from McCashlan, setting forth that he was robbed, 
and that he had cause to suspect " a certain John Gibson and 
William Paxton " of committing the robbery. These were 
two of Smith's Black Boys ; but it subsequently appeared 
that a couple of independent footpads had relieved Mr. Mc- 
Cashlan of his pounds and M^atch, and not a party of the 
regular Black Boys, who, no doubt, had sins enough of their 
own to answer for, without having all the depredations com- 
mitted in the county placed to their account. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 157 

Although we spared no effort to get some account of the 
Indian massacres near Bedford during the Revolution, we 
failed, and must content ourself — if not our readers — by giv- 
ing the two following, which we copy from Mr. Day's " His- 
torical Collections : " — 

About December, 1777, a number of families came into the 
fort from the neighborhood of Johnstown. Among them were 
Samuel Adams, one Thornton, and Bridges. After the alarm 
had somewhat subsided, they agreed to return to their property. 
A party started with pack-horses, reached the place, and, not 
seeing any Indians, collected their property and commenced 
their return. After proceeding some distance, a dog belonging 
to one of the party showed signs of uneasiness and ran back. 
Bridges and Thornton desired the others to wait while they would 
go back for him. They went back, and had proceeded but two or 
three hundred yards when a body of Indians, who had been 
lying in wait on each side of the way, but who had been afraid 
to fire on account of the number of the whites, suddenly rose up 
and took them prisoners. The others, not knowing what de- 
tained their companions, went back after them. When they 
arrived near the spot the Indians fired on them, but without 
doing any injury. The whites instantly turned and fled, except- 
ing Samuel Adams, who took a tree, and began to fight in the 
Indian style. In a few minutes, however, he was killed, but not 
without doing the same fearful service for his adversary. He 
and one of the Indians shot at and killed each other at the same 
moment. When the news reached the fort a party volunteered 
to visit the ground. When they reached it, although the snow 
had fallen ankle-deep, they readily found the bodies of Adams 
and the Indian, the face of the latter having been covered by his 
companions with Adam's hunting-shirt. 

A singular circumstance also occurred about that time in the 
neighborhood of the Alleghany Mountain. A man named Wells 
had made a very considerable improvement, and was esteemed 
rather wealthy for that region. He, like others, had been forced 
with his family from his house, and had gone for protection to 
the fort. In the fall of the year, he concluded to return to his 
place and dig his crop of potatoes. For that purpose, he took 
with him six or seven men, an Irish servant girl to cook, and an 



158 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

old plough-horse. After they had finished their job, they made 
preparations to return to the fort the next day. During the 
night, Wells dreamed that on his way to his family he had been 
attacked and gored by a bull ; and so strong an impression did 
the dream make that he mentioned it to his companions, and 
told them that he was sure some danger awaited them. He 
slept again, and dreamed that he was about to shoot a deer, and, 
when cocking his gun, the main-spring broke. In his dream he 
thought he heard distinctly the crack of the spring when it 
broke. He again awoke, and his fears were confirmed, and he 
immediately urged his friends to rise and get ready to start. 
Directly after he arose he went to his gun to examine it, and, in 
cocking it, the main-spring snapped off". This circumstance 
alarmed them, and they soon had breakfast, and were ready to 
leave. To prevent delay, the girl was put on the horse and 
started off", and, as soon as it was light enough, the rest followed. 
Before they had gone far, a young dog, belonging to Wells, mani- 
fested much alarm, and ran back to the house. Wells called 
him, but, after going a short distance, he invariably ran back. 

Not wishing to leave him, as he was valuable, he went after 
him, but had gone only a short distance toward the house, when 
five Indians rose from behind a large tree that had fallen, and 
approached him with extended hands. The men who were with 
him fled instantly, and he would have followed, but the Indians 
were so close that he thought it useless. As they approached 
him, however, he fancied the looks of a very powerful Indian, 
who was nearest him, boded no good, and being a swift runner, 
and thinking it " neck or nothing " at any rate, determined to 
attempt an escape. As the Indian approached, he threw at him 
his useless^rifle, and dashed off" toward the woods in the direc- 
tion his companions had gone. Instead of firing, the Indians 
commenced a pursuit, for the purpose of making him a prisoner, 
but he outran them. After running some distance, and when 
they thought he would escape, they all stopped and fired at 
once, and every bullet struck hira, but without doing him much 
injury or retarding his flight. Soon after this he saw where his 
companions concealed themselves, and, as he passed, he begged 
them to fire on the Indians, and save him ; but they were afraid, 
and kept quiet. He continued his flight, and, after a short time, 
overtook the girl with the horse. She quickly understood his 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 159 

danger, and dismounted instantly, urging him to take her place^ 
while she would save herself by concealment. He mounted, 
but without a whip, and for want of one could not get the old 
horse out of a trot. This delay brought the Indians upon him 
again directly, and as soon as they were near enough they fired 
— and this time with more effect, as one of the balls struck him 
in the hip and lodged in his groin. But this saved his life; it 
frightened the horse into a gallop, and he escaped, although he 
suffered severely for several months afterward. 

The Indians were afterward pursued, and surprised at their 
morning meal; and, when fired on, four of them were killed, 
but the other, though wounded, made his escape. Bridges, who 
was taken a prisoner near Johnstown when Adams was mur- 
dered, saw him come to his people, and describes him as having 
been shot through the chest, with leaves stuffed in the bullet- 
holes to stop the bleeding. 

The first white child born in Raystown was William Fra- 
zer. When the Revolution broke out, Bedford county fur- 
nished two companies, a greater portion of one of the com- 
panics being recruited in what now constitutes Huntingdon 
and Blair counties. Among these were a man named Mc-^ 
Donald, another named Fee, from the mouth of Raystown 
Branch, and George Weston, a brother of the tory shot at 
Kittaning, and a man named Cluggage. 

The town of Bedford was for a long time the residence of 
General A. St. Clair and a number of others who subse- 
quently figured prominently in the affairs of the nation. 
For pure patriotism and a willingness to spend their blood 
and treasure for the cause of liberty, as well as the defence 
of their brethren on the confines of the county, few towns 
could excel Bedford, which reflected such credit upon them 
as will be remembered by the grateful descendants of the 
frontier-men when history fails to do them justice. 



160 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

EAYSTOWN BRANCH, CONTINUED — MURDER OF SANDERS AND HIS 
FAMILY — ENGLISHMAN AND WIFE TAKEN PRISONERS — FELIX 
SKELLY AND MRS. ELDER TAKEN CAPTIVES — THEIR RETURN, ETC. 



^ 



(HE country between the mouth of the Raystown Branch 
of the Juniata and what is called the Crossings was 
thinly settled prior to the Revolution. The land, and 
general appearance of things, did not strike settlers very 
favorably; hence it may be assumed that it was only taken 
up about 1772, when the new-comers from the eastern 
counties had already taken up the choice tracts lying con- 
tiguous to the river. 

The first depredation committed on the Branch, near its 
mouth, by the savages, occurred in May, 1780. A band of 
roving Indians were known to be in the country, as several 
robberies had occurred in Hartslog Valley, at houses belong- 
ing to men who with their families were forted either at 
Lytle's or at Huntingdon. A scout had ranged the entire 
frontier in search of these depredators, but could not find 
them. They were seen in Woodcock Valley, and informa- 
tion immediately conveyed to the commander at the fort in 
Huntingdon. A scout was sent to Woodcock Valley, but got 
upon the wrong trail, as the Indians had crossed the Terrace 
Mountain, where, it appears, they divided into two parties. 
One of them went to the house of one Sanders, on the 
Branch; and just as the family were seating themselves at 
the table to eat dinner, five of the savages bounded in, and 
killed Sanders, his wife, and three children. An English- 
man and his wife, whose names are not recollected, were in 
the house at the time, both of them begged for their lives, 
declared they were loyal to the king, and would accompany 
them. The Indians agreed to take them along as prisoners, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 161 

notwithstanding at that period scalps commanded nearly as 
high a price as prisoners. The Englishman and his wife 
were taken to Montreal. 

The day following the above massacre, the other party of 
savages, who it appears had taken the country nearer the 
Juniata to range through, made their appearance at the 
house of a Mrs. Skell}^ "who was sick in bed at the time, and 
her nearest neighbor, Mrs. Elder, being there on a visit. It 
was a beautiful May-day Sabbath afternoon, when Mrs. Elder 
prepared to go home, and Felix Skelly, the son, agreed to 
accompany her part of the w^ay. They had gone probably 
a hundred rods through a meadow, when Mrs. Elder noticed 
a savage, partly concealed behind some elder-bushes. She 
stopped suddenly, and told Felix, who had got a little in ad- 
vance, to return, as there were Indians about. Skelly said 
he thought not, and advised her to come on, or it would be 
night before he could return. Mrs. Elder stood still, how- 
ever, and soon saw the figure of the Indian so plainly as not 
to be mistaken, when she screamed to Felix to run, and, 
when in the act of turning around, a savage sprang from be- 
hind an elder bush into the path, and seized her by the hair. 
Another seized Skelly, and in a moment the shout of victory 
went up, and three or four more Indians came from their 
places of concealment. Finding themselves captives, and 
unable to remedy matters, they submitted with a good 
grace. 

Fortunately for them, the w^arrior who had command of 
the party could speak a little English, and w^as a little more 
humane than the generality of savages of the day. He gave 
Mrs. Elder positive assurance that no harm should befall her. 
He would not, however, give the same assurance to Skelly. 
They took up their line of march over the Terrace Mount- 
ain, crossed over to the base of the Alleghany, avoiding as 
much as possible the white settlements, and crossed the 
mountain by the Kittaning Path. 

Skelly, although but seventeen years of age, was an ath- 
letic fellow, well built, and weighed in the neighborhood of 
11 



162 HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

one hundred and eighty pounds. The Indians, noticing his 
apparent strength, and in order probably to tire him so that 
he would make no effort to escape, loaded him down with 
the plunder they had taken in Hartslog Valley. In addition 
to this, they found on the Alleghany Mountains some excel- 
lent wood for making bows and arrows, a quantity of which 
they cut and bound together, and compelled Skelly to carry. 
Mrs. Elder was obliged to carry a long-handled frying-pan, 
which had been brought all the way from Germany by a 
Dunkard family, and had, in all probability, done service 
to three or four generations. Of course, Mrs. Elder, bur- 
dened with this alone, made no complaint. 

At length the party reached an Indian town on the Alle- 
ghany River, where it was determined that a halt should 
take place in order to recruit. One of the Indians was sent 
forward to apprise the town of their coming ; and on their 
entering the town they found a large number of savages 
drawn up in two lines about six feet apart, all armed with 
clubs or paddles. Skelly was relieved of his load and in- 
formed that the performance would open by his being com- 
pelled to run the gauntlet. Skelly, like a man without 
money at one o'clock who has a note to meet in bank about 
three, felt the importance and value of time; so, walking 
leisurely between the lines, he bounded of at a speed that 
would have done credit to a greyhound, and reached the far 
end without receiving more than one or two light blows. 
He was then exempt, as no prisoner was compelled to un- 
dergo the same punishment twice. 

The Indians, disappointed by the fleetness of Skelly, ex- 
pected to more than make up for it in pummelling Mrs. 
Elder; but in this they reckoned without their host. The 
word was given for her to start, but the warrior who had 
captured her demurred, and not from disinterested motives, 
either, as will presently appear. His objections were over- 
ruled, and it was plainly intimated that she must conform 
to the custom. Seeing no method of avoiding it, Mrs. Elder, 
armed with the long-handled pan, walked between the lines 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 163 

with a determined look. The first savage stooped to strike 
her, and in doing so his scant dress exposed his person, 
which Mrs. Elder saw, and anticipated his intention by deal- 
ing him a blow on the exposed part which sent him sprawl- 
jng on all fours. The chiefs who were looking on laughed 
immoderately, and the next four or five, intimidated by her 
heroism, did not attempt to raise their clubs. Another of 
them, determined to have a little fun, raised his club ; but 
no sooner had he it fairly poised than she struck him upon 
the head with the frying-pan in such a manner as in all 
likelihood made him see more stars than ever lit the "welkin 
dome." The Indians considered her an Amazon, and she 
passed through the lines without further molestation ; but, 
as she afterward said, she " did it in a hurry." 

The squaws, as soon as she was released, commenced pelt- 
ing her with sand, pulling her hair, and offering her other 
indignities, which she would not put up with, and again had 
recourse to her formidable weapon — the long-handled pan. 
Lustily she plied it, right and left, until the squaws were 
right glad to get out of her reach. 

In a day or two the line of march for Detroit was resumed, 
and for many weary days they plodded on their way. After 
the first day's journey, the warrior who had captured Mrs. 
Elder commenced making love to her. Her comely person 
had smitten him ; her courage had absolutely fascinated 
him, and he commenced wooing her in the most gentle man- 
ner. She had good sense enough to appear to lend a willing 
ear to his plaintive outpourings, and even went so far as to 
intimate that she would become his squaw on their arrival 
at Detroit. This music was of that kind which in reality 
had " charms to soothe the savage," and matters progressed 
finely. 

One night they encamped at a small Indian village on 
the bank of a stream in Ohio. Near the town was an old 
deserted mill, in the upper story of which Skelly and the 
rest of the male prisoners were placed and the door bolted. 
That evening the Indians had a grand dance and'a drunken 



164 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 

revel, which lasted until after midnight. When the revel 
ended, Skelly said to his comrades in captivity that he meant 
to escape if possible. He argued that if taken in the at- 
tempt he could only be killed, and he thought a cruel death 
by the savages would be his fate, at all events, at the end of 
the journey. They all commenced searching for some means 
of egress, but none offered, save a window. The sash was 
removed, when, on looking out into the clear moonlight, to 
their horror they discovered that they were immediately 
Over a large body of water, which formed the mill-dam, the 
distance to it being not less than sixty feet. They all started 
back but Skelly. He, it appears, had set his heart upon a 
determined effort to escape, and he stood for a while gazing 
upon the water beneath him. Every thing was quiet; not 
a breath of air was stirring. The sheet of water lay like a 
large mirror, reflecting the pale rays of the moon. In a 
minute Skelly formed the desperate determination of jump- 
ing out of the mill-window. 

" Boys," whispered he, " I am going to jump. The chances 
are against me ; I may be killed by the fall, recaptured by 
the savages and killed, or starve before I reach human hab- 
itation ; but then I may escape, and, if I do, I will see my 
poor mother, if she is still alive, in less than ten days. With 
me, it is freedom from this captivity now, or death." So say- 
ing, he sprang from the window-sill, and, before the affrighted 
prisoners had time to shrink, they heard the heavy plunge 
of Skelly into the mill-dam. They hastened to the window, 
and in an instant saw him emerge from the water unharmed, 
shake himself like a spaniel, and disappear in the shadow of 
some tall trees. The wary savage sentinels, a few minutes 
after the plunge, came down to ascertain the noise, but 
Skelly had already escaped. They looked up at the window, 
concluded that the prisoners had amused themselves by 
throwing something out, and returned to their posts. 

The sufferings of Skelly were probably among the most 
extraordinary ever endured by any mortal man. He sup- 
posed that he must have walked at least forty miles before 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 165 

he stopped to rest. He was in a dense forest, and without 
food. The morning was hazy, and the sun did not make 
its appearance until about ten o'clock, when, to his dismay, 
he found he was bearing nearly due south, which would 
lead him right into the heart of a hostile savage country. 
After resting a short time, he again started on his way, 
shaping his course by the sun northeast, avoiding all places 
which bore any resemblance to an Indian trail. That night 
was one that he vividly remembered the balance of his life. 
As soon as it was dark, the cowardly wolves that kept out of 
sight during the day commenced howling, and soon got upon 
his track. The fearful proximity of the ravenous beasts, and 
he without even so much as a knife to defend himself, drove 
him almost to despair, when he discovered a sort of cave 
formed by a projecting rock. This evidently was a wolf's 
den. The hole was quite small, but he forced his body 
through it, and closed the aperture by rolling a heavy stone 
against it. Soon the wolves came, and the hungry pack, 
like a grand chorus of demons, kept up their infernal noise 
all night. To add to the horrors of his situation, he began 
to feel the pangs of both hunger and thirst. With the 
break of day came relief, for his cowardly assailants fled at 
dawn. He ventured out of the den, and soon resolved to 
keep on the lowlands. After digging up some roots, which 
he ate, and refreshing himself at a rivulet, he travelled on 
until after nightfall, when he came upon the very edge of 
a precipice, took a step, and fell among five Indians sitting 
around the embers of a fire. Uninjured by the fall, he 
sprang to his feet, bounded off in the darkness before the 
Indians could recover from their surprise, and made good 
his escape. 

In this way he travelled on, enduring the most excru- 
ciating pains from hunger and fatigue, until the fourth day, 
when he struck the Alleghany River in sight of Fort Pitt ; 
at which place he recruited for a week, and then returned 
home by way of Bedford, in company with a body of troops 
marching east. 



166 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

His return created unusual gladness and great rejoicing, 
for his immediate friends mourned him as one dead. 

Mrs. Elder gave a very interesting narrative on her return, 
although she did not share in the sufferings of Skelly. She 
was taken to Detroit, where she lived in the British garrison 
in the capacity of a cook. From there she was taken to 
Montreal and exchanged, and reached home by way of Phila- 
delphia. 

Felix Skelly afterward moved to the neighborhood of 
Wilmore, in Cambria county, where he lived a long time, 
and died full of years and honors. 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 167 



CHAPTER XIV. 

STANDING STONE, ANCIENT AND MODERN — MURDER OF FELIX 
DONNELLY AND HIS SON FRANCIS, ETC. 

cm S an Indian post of ancient date, none is more univer- 
j\ sally known than " Standing Stone," where Huntingdon 
(^i now stands. The very earliest traders could never as- 
certain by Indian tradition how long it had been a village, but 
that it dated back to a very remote period may be judged from 
the fact that the land on the fiat betweeen Stone Creek and 
Huntingdon was under cultivation one hundred and five 
years ago. It was used as one extensive corn-field, with the 
exception of that portion lying near the mouth of the creek, 
where the Indian town stood, and where also was the public 
ground, used on great occasions for councils or dances. 

The Standing Stone — that is, the original stone — was, ac- 
cording to John Harris, fourteen feet high and six inches 
square. It stood on the right bank of Stone Creek, near its 
mouth, and in such a position as to enable persons to see it 
at a considerable distance, either from up or down the river. 

About the self-same Standing Stone there still exist con- 
tradictory opinions. These we have endeavored to ascertain ; 
and, after weighing them carefully, we have come to the con- 
clusion that no person now living ever saw part or parcel of 
the original stone, notwithstanding Dr. Henderson delivered 
what some are disposed to believe a portion of it to the His- 
torical Society of Pennsylvania. 

The original Standing Stone, we are induced to believe, in 
addition to serving a similar capacity to that of a guide- 
board at a cross-road, was the official record of the tribe. 
On it, no doubt, were engraved all the important epochs in 
its history, — its wars, its mighty deeds, its prowess in battle, 
and its skill in the chase. It might, too, have served as a 



168 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

sacred tablet to the memory of many a noble chief who fell 
by the arrow of an enemy. These things were, no doubt, in 
cabalistic characters ; and, although each inscription may 
have been small, its meaning may have taken in almost an 
unbounded scope, as Indian brevity generally does. 

This stone was once the cause of a war. The Tuscaroras, 
residing some thirty or forty miles down the river, — proba- 
bly in Tuscarora Valley, — wished to declare war against the 
tribe at Standing Stone, for some real or fancied insult, and 
for this purpose sent them repeated war-messages, which the 
tribe at the Stone refused to give ear to, knowing as they did 
the strength and power of the enemy. Taking advantage 
of the absence of a large part of the tribe on a hunt, the 
Tuscaroras, in great force, came upon the village, captured 
the stone, and carried it off. Immediately after the return 
of the warriors, the entire available war-force was despatched 
after the depredators, who were soon overtaken. A bloody 
conflict ensued, and the trophy was recaptured and carried 
back in triumph. 

Dr. Barton, it is said, discovered that the word Oneida 
meant "Standing Stone," in the language of the Southern 
Indians.* The Oneida tribe of the Iroquois had a tradition 
that their forefathers came from the South ; consequently, 
the tribe at Standing Stone may have been part of the 
Oneida tribe instead of Delawares, as was generally supposed. 
The Tuscaroras, according to history, came from the South 
and became one of the Iroquois confederation in 1712. The 
language of the two tribes in question, although not identi- 
cal, bore a strong affinity to each other. Hence we may 
surmise that the characters upon the stone were understood 
by the Tuscaroras, and that it possessed, in their eyes suf- 
ficient value to move it some forty or fifty miles, under what 
we should call disadvantageous circumstances, especially 
when it is known that stones of a better finish could have 
been found anywhere along the Juniata River. 

* Morgan, in his " League of the Iroquois," gives it a different interpretation. 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. ISO* 

There is no doubt at all but what the original stone was 
removed by the Indians and taken with them in 1754 or 
1755, for it is a well-ascertained fact that the Indians in the 
valley, with some few exceptions, (Aughwick, for instance,) 
joined the French in the above years. 

The first survey of the land on which Huntingdon now 
stands was made by Mr. Lukens, in behalf of a claimant 
named Crawford, in 1756. It is therein named as "George 
Crogan's improvement." It is not improbable that Crogan 
may have claimed the improved fields and site of the de- 
serted village, but that he ever made any improvement be- 
yond probably erecting a trading-post there is a matter of 
some doubt. His whole histor}^ proves that he was no im- 
proving man. 

On the second stone erected were found the names of John 
and Charles Lukens, Thomas Smith, and a number of others,, 
with dates varying from 1768 to 1770, cut or chiselled. This 
stone was most unquestionably erected, by some of the men 
whose names it bore, on the same spot where the original 
stone stood, but was subsequently removed to or near where 
the old court-house in Huntingdon formerly stood. This 
position it occupied for many years, and might still stand as 
a monument of the past, had not some Vandal taken it into 
his head to destroy it. One piece of it still remains in a wall 
of the foundation of a house in Huntingdon. 

The old Indian graveyard (and an extensive one it must 
have been) was on the high ground, near where the present 
Presbyterian church stands. To the credit of the Hunting- 
don folks be it said, they have never permitted a general ex- 
humation of the bones of the Indians, to fill scientific cabi- 
nets, gratify the morbid appetites of the curious, or even to 
satisfy the less objectionable zeal of the antiquarian. 

The few white settlers who lived at the Stone, in 1762, 
partially erected a stockade fort; but before the spring of 
1763 they were forced to abandon it, as well as their houses, 
and fly to Carlisle for protection. When the settlers returned, 
in 1770, the fort still stood, though partially decayed. Immei 



170 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

diately on the breaking out of the war of the Revolution, the 
fort was rebuilt on a more extended scale by the few inhabi- 
tants of the town and surrounding country. It was located 
near where the court-house now stands, immediately on the 
bluff, and, according to the traces of it discovered by the 
present generation, must have covered ten acres of ground. 
It was strongly built; and, when the savages were in the 
midst of their depredations, it was the only reliable refuge — 
before the erection of the Lead Mine Fort, in Sinking Val- 
ley — for all the people residing as far west as the base of the 
Alleghany Mountains. 

No actual attempt was ever made against Standing Stone 
Fort; neither were there ever any Indians seen, except on 
two or three occasions, very close to it. A party of lurking 
savages were once surprised and shot at by a number of 
scouts on the hill where the graveyard now stands; but they 
made good their escape without any injury being done. 

At another time, by a display of cool courage, as well as 
shrewdness, that would do any general credit, the com- 
mander of the fort unquestionably saved the place from total 
annihilation. One morning a large body of savages ap- 
peared upon the ridge on the opposite side of the river, and, 
by their manoeuvring, it was clearly evident that they medi- 
tated an attack, which, under the circumstances, must have 
proved disastrous to the settlers, for not more than ten men 
able to bear arms were in the fort at the time — the majority 
having left on a scouting expedition. The commander, with 
judgment that did him infinite credit, marshalled his men, 
and paraded them for half an hour in such a manner as to 
enable the Indians to see a constant moving of the middle 
of the column, but neither end of it, while the drums kept 
up a constant clatter. In addition to this, he ordered all the 
women out, armed them with frying-pans, brooms, or what- 
ever he could lay his hands upon, and marched them about 
the enclosure after the same manner in which he did the 
men. The enemy could only make out the dim outlines of 
the people and hear the noise. The stratagem succeeded, 



HISTOKY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 171 

and, after a very short council of war, the Indians disap- 
peared. 

Among those who figured about Standing Stone, at the be- 
ginning of the Revolution, were the Bradys. Hugh Brady's 
name appears in some of the old title-deeds; and the father 
of Sam. Brady (rendered famous by R. B. McCabe, Esq.) 
lived at the mouth of the little run opposite Huntingdon. 
Within the walls of Standing Stone Fort, General Hugh 
Brady and a twin-sister were born. All the Bradys went to 
the West Branch of the Susquehanna during the Revolu- 
tion. Hugh entered the army at an early age, and, step by 
step, rose from the ranks to the exalted position he occupied 
at the time of his death. A characteristic anecdote is related 
of him. At one time he was lying ill at Erie, and his phy- 
sician told him he could not survive. " Let the drums beat," 
said he; "my knapsack is swung, and Hugh Brady is ready 
to march !" He recovered, however, and died only a few 
years ago, at Sun bury. 

The only massacre by Indians in the immediate vicinity 
of Standing Stone occurred on the 19th of June, 1777, at 
what was then known as the " Big Spring," two miles west 
of the fort. In consequence of hostile bands of Indians 
having been seen at a number of places in the neighbor- 
hood, and the general alarm which followed, people com- 
menced flocking to the forts from every direction. 

On the day above named, Felix Donnelly and his son 
Francis, and Bartholomew Maguire and his daughter, resid- 
ing a short distance from the mouth of Shaver's Creek, 
placed a number of their movable effects upon horses, and, 
with a cow, went down the river, for the purpose of forting 
at Standing Stone. Jane Maguire was in advance, driving 
the cow, and the Donnellys and Maguire in the rear, on the 
horses. When nearly opposite the Big Spring, an Indian 
fired from ambuscade and killed young Donnelly. His 
father, who was close to him, caught him, for the purpose of 
keeping him upon the horse. Maguire urged the old man 
to fly, but he refused to leave his son. Maguire then 



172 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

rode to his side, and the two held the dead body of Francis. 
While in this position, three Indians rushed from their am- 
buscades with terrific yells, and fired a volley, one bullet 
striking Felix Donnelly, and the other grazing Maguire's. 
ear, carrying away a portion of his hair. The bodies of both 
the Donnellys fell to the ground, and Maguire rode forward, 
passing (probably without noticing her) his daughter. The- 
Indians, after scalping the murdered men, followed Jane, 
evidently with the intention of making a prisoner of her.. 
The fleetest of them overtook her, and grasped her by the 
dress, and with uplifted tomahawk demanded her to surren- 
der ; but she struggled heroically. The strings of her short 
gown gave way, and by an extraordinary effort she freed 
herself, leaving the garment in the hands of the savage;, 
then, seizing the cow's tail, she gave it a twist, which started 
the animal running, and gave her an impetus which soon 
enabled her to pass her father. The savage still followed,, 
but in the meantime Maguire had recovered from the con- 
sternation caused by the massacre, and immediately aimed 
his rifle at the Indian, when the latter took shelter behind a. 
tree. At this juncture, a number of men who were pitching 
quoits at Cryder's Mill, on the opposite side of the river, who 
had heard the firing and the whoops of the savages, put off 
in a canoe to engage the Indians; but they were soon dis- 
covered, and the Indian, shaking Jane Maguire's short gowrt 
derisively at them, disappeared. The men, doubtful as to- 
the number of the enemy, returned to the mill, to await the 
arrival of a greater force. 

Maguire and his daughter reached the fort in a state better 
imagined than described. The garrison was soon alarmed, 
and a number of armed men started in pursuit of the sav- 
ages. At the mill tljey were joined by the men previously 
mentioned; and, although every exertion was made in their 
power, they could not get upon their trail, and the pursuit 
was abandoned. 

The dead bodies of the Donnellys were taken to Standing 
Stone, and buried upon what was then vacant ground ; but 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 173 

the spot where they now rest is pointed out in a garden in 
the heart of the borough of Huntingdon. 

Jane Maguire, who certainly exhibited a very fair share 
•of the heroism of the day in her escape from the savage, 
-afterward married a man named Dowling, and moved to 
Raystown Branch, where she reared a family of children, 
some of whom are still living. 

Opposite the mouth of the Raystown Branch lived Colonel 
Fee, an active and energetic man during the Revolution. He 
was in Captain Blair's expedition against the tories, and for 
a while served as a private in the army. His widow (a sister 
of the late Thomas Jackson, of Gaysport) is still living, at 
the advanced age of eighty-seven years, -and to her we are 
indebted for much valuable information in the construction 
of these pages. 

The Cryders, too, are worthy of a special notice. They 
consisted of a father, mother, and seven sons. They built a 
mill at the Big Spring, which served for the people of Stand- 
ing Stone and the surrounding country. They were all men 
suitable for the times — rugged and daring. A majority of 
them were constantly in service during the war of the Revo- 
lution, either as frontier-men, scouts, or fort guards. Michael 
Cryder, the father, used to spend his days at his mill and 
his nights at the fort during the troublesome times, and it 
was himself and five of his sons who accomplished the then 
extraordinary achievement of running the first ark-load of 
flour down the Juniata River. 

The Standing Stone is frequently mentioned in the Ar- 
chives, but its name is mostl}^ coupled with rumors, grossly 
■exaggerated, of attacks by tories, &c. There is no doubt 
whatever but that great distress, principally arising from a 
want of provisions, prevailed there during the war. 

When the alarms were most frequent, and Council had 
been importuned time and again to send provisions to Stand- 
ing Stone, as well as men for its defence, and munitions, a 
circular was issued to the county lieutenants, dated July 16, 
1778, from which we extract the following: — 



174 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

It is proper to acquaint you that Colonel Broadhead's regi- 
ment, now on a march to Pittsburg, is ordered by the Board of 
War to the Standing Stone; and we have ordered three hundred 
militia from Cumberland, and two hundred from York, to join 
them. 

This promise to the ear of the affrighted settlers was broken 
to the hope. Only seventy of the Cumberland militia were 
taken to the Standing Stone, and thirty of them soon after 
removed to garrison the Lead Mine Fort. 

Huntingdon was laid out previous to the commencement 
of hostilities — probably in 1775, — but it retained the name 
of Stone Town for many years. With the exception of 
Frankstown, it is the oldest town on the Juniata. On the 
formation of the county, in 1787, it took the same name. 
The county, during the late war with Great Britain, fur- 
nished three full companies; and, although it once was the 
stronghold of tories, we can now safely say that it stands 
among the most patriotic in the State. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 177 



CHAPTER XV. 

« 

TRIALS OF THE EAELY SETTLERS — THEIR FORTS, AND OTHER MEANS 

OF DEFENCE. 

^*jUHE first outbreak of the war in 1775 found the frontier 
^J J inhabitants few in number and without arms. Living 
^^ in a remote part of the State, where no invading foe 
would be likely to come, many young and vigorous men 
went forward and joined the army. This fancied security, 
however, proved a sad delusion to the frontier-men ; and the 
absence of any regular means of defence was only severely 
felt when the savages came down from the mountain, ripe 
for rapine, blood, and theft. The fact that the northwestern 
savages had allied themselves to the English was only fully 
realized by the residents of the Juniata Valley when the 
painted warriors came down the Kittaning War Path, and 
commenced their infernal and atrocious work by scalping 
women and innocent babes. 

The first alarm and panic over, people collected together 
and consulted about some means of defence. The more 
prudent were in favor of abandoning their farms andtretir- 
ing to some of the eastern settlements, which many did, es- 
pecially after it was discovered that so many of the king's 
subjects were likely to remain loyal instead of joining the 
cause of the patriots. The more daring would not agree to 
abandon their homes, but at once pledged themselves to de- 
fend their firesides at the risk of their lives. 

To this end, in the fall of 1777, and in the spring of 1778, 
a number of fortifications were commenced, the farms aban- 
doned, or partially so, and the inhabitants assumed an atti- 
tude of defence. These forts were generally stockades, built 
of logs or puncheons, with loop-holes made to flare on the 
outside, in order to bring rifles to bear in several directions. 
12 



178 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 

The first of these fort was built near where McCahen's 
Mill now stands, which was called Fetter's or Frankstown, 
about a mile above Hollidaysburg. A barn on the flat op- 
posite the second lock, a mile below Hollidaysburg, was 
turned into a fort and called Holliday's. It was an old barn, 
but very large, and belonged to one Peter Titus. Through 
the energy of Mr. Holliday and a few others, it was made 
comfortable, but not deemed very secure. These forts served 
for the families in what was termed the Frankstown district, 
comprising not only Frankstown, but all the surrounding 
country. In Canoe Valley a fort was built, called Lowry's 
Fort, but it was small and inconvenient; and the house of 
Matthew Dean, a mile farther up, was also turned into a 
temporary fortress in 1777. These served the people of Canoe 
Valley and Water Street. The people of Hartslog Valley 
erected a fort south of Alexandria, on Cannon's mill-run, 
called Lytle's. A large and substantial garrison, called 
Hartsock's Fort, was built in Woodcock Valley, which served 
for the people of that valley and also for the residents of the 
middle of the Cove. The inhabitants of the lower end of 
the Cove, and along Clover Creek, forted at the house of 
Captain Phillips, some two or three miles above where Wil- 
liamsburg now stands, which was turned into a temporary 
fortress. Anderson's Fort was erected where Petersburg now 
stan(?fe, while along Shaver's Creek there were two others — 
one at General McElery's, and the other at Alexander Mc- 
Cormick's, toward Stone Creek. The latter was merely a 
house fortified without additional buildings, as was- also the 
house of Captain E. Rickets, in Warrior's Mark. Forts were 
also built at Dunning's Creek, and on the Raystown Branch, 
while the forts at Standing Stone and Bedford were enlarged 
and improved. The year following, a very substantial fort 
was built at the residence of Jacob Roller, in Sinking Valley, 
to accommodate the large influx of people into the valley. 
In the fall of 1778, Fort Roberdeau, or as it was better 
known, the Lead Mine Fort, in Sinking Valley, was com- 
pleted. It was the largest as well as the best-defended post on 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 179 

the frontier. It was built under the superintendence of Gen- 
eral Roberdeau, and occupied by Major Cluggage, with a 
regular company from Cumberland county. On the ram- 
parts two cannon were mounted, and in the fortress there 
were plenty of small-arms and ammunition. This fort was 
strengthened by government. Lead was exceedingly scarce, 
and a high value was attached to it ; and, fearing that the 
mines might fall into the hands of the enemy, the most vig- 
ilant watch was kept and the most rigid military discipline 
enforced. 

During the summer of 1776, very few depredations were 
committed ; but in the following year, as succeeding chapters 
will show, the incursions and massacres of the Indians were 
so bold and cruel that the utmost consternation prevailed, 
and business was in a great measure suspended. The settlers 
managed to get their sowing done in both fall and spring, 
but much was sowed that never was reaped. To add to 
their deplorable condition, the horrors of starvation were 
constantly staring them in the face. 

In order to get in crops, it was necessary to have the 
reapers guarded and sentinels j^osted at each corner of a 
field, while half-grown boys followed in the very footsteps of 
the laborers, carrying their rifles loaded and primed for de- 
fence. By such means they managed to get a scant supply 
of grain. 

The cattle were suflFered to graze at large, for seldom, if 
ever, any of them were molested. Hogs, too, were suffered 
to run at large in the woods, feeding upon roots and acorns. 
When meat was wanted, a party ran down a hog or heifer, 
butchered it, and took it to the fort. As for such luxuries 
as coffee, tea, sugar, &c., they were among the missing, and 
little cared for. 

It is not, we hope, to the discredit of any of the best men 
in the Juniata Valley now, to say that their fathers were 
born in forts and rocked in sugar-troughs, and their grand- 
fathers wore entire suits, including shoes, made of buckskin, 
lived sometimes on poor fare, and short allowance at that. 



' 180 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

They were the men whose sinewy arms hewed down the 
monarchs of the forest, and, with shovel, hoe, plough, and 
pick, that we might enjoy the bounties of mother earth when 
they were mouldering in the bosom thereof, made "waste 
places glad " and the wilderness to blossom like the rose. 
Hallowed be their names! But, while we raise the tuneful 
lay to sing psalms of praise to the glorious old pioneers who 
by hardship and toil have entailed such blessings upon us, 
is it not a melancholy reflection to think that in but a few 
succeeding generations the scanty pages of ancient histories 
alone will be the monuments to chronicle their deeds? 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 183 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE EAKLY SETTLERS — OLD HART, THE INDIAN TRADER, ETC. 

. + .T. 



m 



^E have been unable to procure any thing like a full 
and complete list of the early settlers of the entire 
7^ valley ; yet we deem it necessary to give what we 
have procured, as a necessary adjunct to our work. It will 
be perceived that many of the names are familiar, and the 
descendants are still scattered profusely over this section of 
the country, as well as the Union. 

Mr. Bell, in his Memoir, states that, at the time of his 
earliest recollection, between the Stone (Huntingdon) and 
the mountain, the pioneers had principally settled along the 
streams. The prevailing religion was the Presbyterian, al- 
though there were Lutherans and Roman Catholics, " and 
probably as many who professed no religion at all as all the 
other denominations put together." 

In addition to those whose names have already appeared, 
or will appear hereafter, we may incidentally mention, as 
early settlers about Lewistown, the McClays, McNitts, and 
Millikin ; west of Lewistown, along the river, the Junkins, 
Wilsons, Bratton, and Stackpoles. 

At Huntingdon, Ludwig Sills, Benjamin Elliot, Abraham 
Haynes, Frank Cluggage, Mr. Allabaugh, and Mr. McMur- 
trie ; west of Huntingdon, in the neighborhood of Shaver's 
Creek, Samuel Anderson, Bartholomew Maguire, General 
McElevy, McCormick, and Donnelly. Of course, this place 
was settled at a later day than the country farthest east. 

The first house erected where Alexandria now stands was 
located near a spring, and was built and occupied by two 
young Scotchmen, named Matthew Neal and Hugh Glover, 
as a kind of trading-post. They dealt in goods generally, 
and in whiskey particularly. The natural consequences of 



184 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

a free indulgence in the latter were fights innumerable, 
" even in them days," and the place received the euphonious 
title of " Battle Swamp," which clung to it for many years. 
Near that place, at what was called " Charles's Fording of the 
Big Juniata," was the celebrated log which gave rise to the 
name of the valley. Charles Caldwell lived in the neighbor- 
hood — was the oldest settler, and the only one residing within 
two miles of " Battle Swamp." In what then constituted the 
valley — say in 1776 — lived John Tussey, Robert Caldwell, and 
Edward Rickets, on the banks of the Little Juniata. On the 
main stream, or what was then termed the Frankstown 
Branch, on the northwest side, resided John Bell, William 
Travis, James Dean, Moses Donaldson, and Thomas Johnston. 
On the southwest bank resided John Mitchell and Peter 
Grafius. George Jackson lived on the banks of the Little 
Juniata, probably a mile from the mouth of Shaver's Creek ; 
and a mile further up lived Jacob and Josiah Minor. In 
the neighborhood of Water Street and Canoe Valley, John 
and Matthew Dean, Jacob Roller, John Bell, Lowry, Beattys^ 
Moreheads, Simonton, Vanzant, John Sanders, Samuel Davis, 
Edward Milligan. Near Frankstown, and in it, Lazarus 
Lowry, the Moores, Alexander McDowell. West of Franks- 
town, Joseph McCune, Mclntyre, John McKillip, McRoberts, 
and John Crouse. Most of the latter lived along where 
the Reservoir now is — the building of which destroyed the 
old McCune and McRoberts farms. On the flat, west of 
Frankstown, lived Peter Titus and John Carr; in the Loop, 
A. Robinson and W. Divinny; John Long, near where Jack- 
son's farm now is; Foster, where McCahen's Mill now stands; 
and a little distance farther west, David Bard, a Presbyterian 
preacher ; Thomas and Michael Coleman, Michael Wallack, 
James Hardin, a Mr. Hileman, and David Torrcnce, in the 
neighborhood of where Altoona now stands. Of course, this 
list does not comprise all the old settlers, nor probably even 
a majority of them, but we copy a portion of the names from 
Mr. Bell's Memoir. A number of them were given to us by 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 185 

Maguire, and some were found in an old ledger, belonging 
to Lazarus Lowry when he kept store in Frankstown in 1790. 

The man Hart, whose name is perpetuated, in connection 
with his log, by the valley we have spoken of, was an old 
German, who followed the occupation of trading among the 
Indians. He was probably the first permanent white settler 
along the Juniata west of the Standing Stone; and, long be- 
fore he settled, he crossed and recrossed the Alleghany 
Mountains, by the old war-path, with his pack-horses. "John 
Hart's Sleeping Place " is mentioned, in 1756, by John 
Harris, in making an estimate of the distance between the 
rivers Susquehanna and Alleghany. Hart's Sleeping Place 
is about twelve miles from the junction of the Burgoon and 
Kittaning Runs, and still retains its name. When he took 
Ml) his residence along the river, he hewed down an immense 
tree, and turned it into a trough, out of which he fed his 
horses and cattle; hence the name, " Hart's Log." 

It is stated that upon one occasion, when Hart was an old 
man, some savages came into his settlement on a pillaging 
excursion. They knew Hart, and went to his cabin, but he 
happened to be from home. On his log they left a toma- 
hawk, painted red, and a small piece of slate upon which 
rude hieroglyphics were drawn — one resembling an Indian 
with a bundle ujDon his back, over whose head were seven 
strokes and whose belt was filled with scalps. In front of 
this drawing was the sun rising, and behind them a picture 
of the moon. 

On Hart's return, he soon found that Indians had been 
about. The meaning of the articles left he could readily de- 
cipher. The red hatchet upon the log signified that Indians 
were about, but to him they laid down the hatchet. The 
picture of the rising sun signified that they were going to 
the east. The strokes indicated the number of warriors, and 
the bundle and scalps intimated that they would both 
plunder and murder. The moon signified that they would 
return at night. 

Hart, although he felt safe under such an assurance, had 



186 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

no desire to encounter the red-skins; so he scratched upon 
the reverse of the slate the outline of a heart, and laid by the 
side of it a pipe — which, interpreted, meant, "Hart smokes 
with you the pipe of peace," and left. 

On his return next day he found the Indians had returned, 
and passed the night at his log, where they had left a quantity 
of pewter platters, mugs, &c. It afterward appeared that they 
had been at several houses, but the inmates had fled. From 
one they stole a quantity of silver money, and at the house 
of a Dunkard they stole the pewter-ware. At the log they 
attempted to run the metal into bullets, but, finding it a fail- 
ure, they probably left the heavy load in disgust. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 189 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE CONTINENTAL MILLS OF THE VALLEY. 

/^ MONG the vicissitudes incident to the settlement of the 
TlI valley was a very serious one, in the shape of some. 
^1 ^ times an absolute want of flour — not always owing to 
a lack of grain, but the want of mills. Especially did this 
operate seriously during the Revolution. The few mills at 
such great distances apart rendered it necessary for parties 
of neighbors to join in company, arm themselves, and go to 
mill together — all waiting until the grain was turned into 
flour. The want of adequate machinery prevented the erec- 
tion of mills, and those that were built prior to the Revolu- 
tion, and during the continuance of the war, could scarcely 
do the requisite amount of work for the country, sparsely as 
it was settled. To look at some of the old gearing and ma- 
chinery in use then would only confirm the adage that " ne- 
cessity is the mother of invention." 

The late Edward Bell, of Blair county, who rose to com- 
petence by his own indomitable energy and perseverance, 
and commanded the esteem and respect of all who knew 
him, once boasted to us that the first shoes he ever wore he 
made for himself in Fort Lowry. 

" And," said he " I made them so well that I soon became 
shoemaker to the fort. There is no doubt but that I could 
have followed the business to advantage; but I never liked 
it, so I served a regular apprenticeship to the mill-wrighting." 

It is to this circumstance, then, that we are indebted for the 
following unique description of the old continental mill, 
which still stands at J. Green & Company's (formerly Dor- 
sey's) forge, on the Little Juniata, in Huntingdon county. 
It was built before the Revolution, — as near as can be ascer- 
tained in 1774, — by Jacob and Josiah Minor. Mr. Bell, 
in his manuscript, says:— 



190 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

It was a curious piece of machinery when I first saw it. The 
house was about twelve feet high, and about fourteen feet square, 
made of small poles and covered with clapboards. There was 
neither floor nor loft in it. The husk was made of round logs 
built into the wall; the water or tub wheel was some three feet 
in diameter, and split boards driven into the sides of the shaft 
made the buckets. The shaft had a gudgeon in the lower end 
and a thing they called a spindle in the upper end, and was not 
dressed in any way between the claws. The stones were about 
two feet four or six inches in diameter, and not thick, and in 
place of a hoop they had cut a buttonwood-tree that was hollow 
and large enough to admit the stones, and sawed or cut it ofi" to 
make the hoop. The hopper was made of clapboards, and a 
hole near the eye of the stone answered for the dampsil, with a 
pin driven in it, which struck the shoe every time the stone re- 
volved. The meal-trough, made out of part of a gun, completed 
the grinding fixtures. The bolting-chest was about six feet long, 
two and half feet wide, and four feet high, made of live-wood 
puncheons, split, hewed, and jointed to hold flour, with a pair of 
deer-skins sewed together to shut the door. There was not one 
ounce of iron about the chest or bolting-reel. It had a crank or 
handle on one end, made of wood — the shaft, ribs, and arms, of 
the same material ; and the cloth was leona muslin, or lining 
that looked like it. 

Rather a one-horse concern for our day and generation ! 
and its capacity must have been about as one to one thou- 
sand, when compared with the mills of the present age. We 
should like to see how some of the people of the valley now 
would relish bread baked from flour bolted through Leona 
muslin! It might do for dyspepsia; indeed, we doubt 
whether such a disease was known in the valley at so early 
a day. 

The mill of which Mr. Bell speaks, although it may have 
been the first in his neighborhood, was by no means the first 
driven by the waters of the Juniata. William Patterson 
erected a mill, where Millerstown now stands, as early as 
1758, which, however, was carried off" by a flood a year or so 
after it was in operation. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 191 

The first mill in the Upper Valley was built on Yellow 
Creek, by the squatters, previous to the edict of the Penn 
family which destroyed the cabins ; but in what year, or by 
whom built, or what its ultimate fate was, we are unable to 
say. 

The second mill in the valley was built where Spang's 
Mill now stands, in Blair county, then considered a part of 
the Cove. It was erected by a man named Jacob Neff, a 
Dunkard. This mill was burned down during the Revolu- 
tion by the Indians, but speedily rebuilt, and stood for many 
years thereafter. 

The third was the " Tub " Mill, of which Mr. Bell gives a 
description. The term tub was applied to it in consequence 
of the peculiar formation of the water-wheel. Nearly all the 
mills of those days were worked with a tub-wheel. 

Directly after, a mill was erected by a Mr. Fetter, near 
where McCahen's Mill now stands, near Hollidaysburg. 
No traces whatever are left of it. 

About the same period, two brothers, named Beebault, 
built a mill, almost the counterpart of the Minor Mill, at 
the mouth of Spruce Creek. Relics of this mill stood until 
within a few years. 

The next was a small mill built by a man named Armi- 
tage, at Mill Creek, below Huntingdon. 

Nathaniel Garrard built one in Woodcock Valley, about 
six miles from Huntingdon. 

Another was built in the vicinity of Frankstown ; another 
near where Martha Forge, in the Gap, now stands. 

Cryder's Mill, above Huntingdon, was finished about 1776. 

These were all the mills that existed in the upper end of 
the valley prior to the Revolution. Although small, they 
were evidently of immense value — people having sometimes 
been compelled to travel some forty miles to obtain their 
services. The vestiges of all are gone, like shadows that 
have passed away, save the old Continentaller described by 
Mr. Bell. It alone stands, a relic of the past. 



192 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE COVE — EARLY SETTLEMENT BY DUNKARDS — INDIAN MASSACRES 
AND CAPTIVES — MASSACRE OF ULLERY — A RESISTANT DUNKARD, 
ETC. 

(-^LHE Great Cove, Little Cove, and Canolloways," are 
a 1 mentioned frequently in government papers as far 
^^ back as 1749, -Indian traders having penetrated them 
at a much earlier date than that; yet they only figure 
prominently from that period. The Great Cove, now known 
as Morrison's, commences at Pattonsville, in Bedford county, 
and ends at Williamsburg, on the Juniata — bounded by 
Dunning's and Lock Mountains on the west, and Tussey 
Mountain on the east. For fertile limestone land, beautiful 
scenery, and splendid farms, few valleys in the State equal 
— none surpass — Morrison's Cove. 

The earliest settlement of the cove was effected by Scotch- 
Irish, as early as 1749; but they shared the fate of the burnt- 
cabin folks when Secretary Peters answered the prayers of 
the Indians, and were expelled. Nothing daunted, however, 
many of them returned, and commenced improving; that, 
too, before the scions of " Father Onus " had acquired the 
right, title, and interest, to all and singular the fine lands, 
for the munificent sum of £400 ! 

The greater portion of the beautiful valley, however, was 
almost unexplored until the Penns made the new purchase. 
About 1755, a colony of Dunkards took up the southern 
portion of the Cove, and their descendants hold possession 
of it to this day. They have unquestionably the finest farms, 
as well as the most fertile land, in the State ; and right glad 
should we be to end their portion of the chapter by saying 
so, or even by adding that for thrift and economy they stand 
unsurpassed ; but a sense of candor compels us to speak of 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 193 

them as they are, — " nothing extenuate, nor set down aught 
in malice." 

In the first place, let it be understood that we are in no 
particle indebted to them for one iota of the blessings of 
government we enjoy. They are strict non-resistants ; and 
in the predatory incursions of the French and Indians, in 
1756-63, and in fact, during all the savage warfare, they not 
only refused to take up arms to repel the savage marauders 
and prevent the inhuman slaughter of women and children, 
but they refused in the most positive manner to pay a dol- 
lar to support those who were willing to take up arms to 
defend their homes and their firesides, until wrung from 
them by the stern mandates of the law, from which there 
was no appeal. 

They did the same thing when the Revolution broke out. 
There was a scarcity of men. Sixty able-bodied ones 
among them might readily have formed a cordon of frontier 
defence, which could have prevented many of the Indian 
massacres which took place between 1777 and 1780, and 
more especially among their own j)eople in the Cove. But 
not a man would shoulder his rifle; they were non-resistants! 
They might, at least, have furnished money, for they always 
had an abundance of that, the hoarding of which seemed to 
be the sole aim and object of life with them. But, no ; not 
a dollar! The}^ occupied neutral ground, and wished to 
make no resistance. Again; they might have furnished 
supplies. And they did furnish supplies to those who were 
risking their lives to repel the invaders, — but it was only 
when the almighty dollar accompanied the demand. 

After the massacre of thirty of them, in less than forty- 
eight hours, Colonel Piper, the lieutenant-colonel of Bedford 
county, made a stirring appeal to them. But it was of no 
avail ; they were non-resistants, and evidently determined to 
remain such. 

Of the peculiar religious tenets of these primitive people 
we do not profess to know anything; hence our remarks are 
unbiassed. We are solely recording historical facts. 
13 



194 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

As a curious anomaly in the history of the present gener- 
ation, it may be stated that, although they perform that part 
of the compact between government and a good citizen which 
relates to paying taxes, they never vote, neither can the most 
seductive persuasions of politicians bring them to the polls. 

Like their forefathers, they are non-resistants — producers, 
but non-consumers. 

During the Indian wars of 1762, quite a number of mur- 
ders were committed in the Cove, and many captives taken, 
but the particulars were too vague for history. Although 
we made every effort to ascertain the names of some of the 
massacred and the circumstances attending their massacre, 
we signally failed. It may, therefore, be supposed that, in 
the absence of any record, there is no other method of ascer- 
taining facts extant. 

During the Great Cove massacre, among others carried 
into captivity was the family of John Martin. This incur- 
sion was indeed a most formidable one, led by the kings 
Shingas and Beaver in person. How many were killed there 
is no living witness to tell ; neither can we conjecture the 
number of prisoners taken. The following petition was sent 

by John Martin to council : — 

August 13, 1762. 

The Humble Petition of Your Most Obedient Servant Shew- 
eth, Sir, may it pleas Your Excellancy, Hearing me in Your 
Clemancy a few Words. I, One of the Bereaved of my Wife 
and five Children, by Savage War at the Captivity of the Great 
Cove, after Many & Long Journeys, I Lately went to an Indian 
Town, viz., Tuskaroways, 150 miles Beyond Fort Pitts, & En- 
treated in Co\ Bucquits & Co'. Croghan's favor, So as to bear 
their Letters to King Beaver & Cap'. Shingas, Desiring them to 
Give up One of my Daughters to me. Whiles I have Yet two 
Sons & One Other Daughter, if Alive, Among them — and after 
Seeing my Daughter with Shingas he Refused to Give her up, 
and after some Expostulating with him, but all in vain, he 
promised to Deliver her up with the Other Captives to y' Excel- 
lency. 

Sir, y' Excellency's Most Humble Serv*, Humbly & Passion- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 195 

ately Beseeches Y' Beningn Compassion to interpose Y' Excel- 
lencies Beneficent influence in favor of Y' Excellencies Most 
Obedient & Dutiful Serv*. 

John Martin. 

After the march of General Forbes from Raystown, and 
immediately preceding it, no Indian depredations were com- 
mitted in the Cove up to the commencement of hostilities 
between the Colonies and Great Britain. The Indians in 
the French interests were constantly on the alert ; and their 
spies prowling on the outskirts did not fail to report at head- 
quarters the arrival at Raystown of Colonel Boquet and his 
army, the formidable bearing and arms of which convinced 
the savages that it was prudent to keep within the bounds 
of the French power. 

The first Indian depredations of the Revolution in the 
Juniata Valley were committed in November, 1777. A large 
body of Indians — not less than thirty — armed with British 
rifles, ammunition, tomahawks, scalping-knives, and all other 
murderous appliances they were capable of using, came into 
the settlement with the avowed intention of gathering scalps 
for His Britannic Majesty's officers at Detroit. Their com- 
ing was not unlooked-for, but the settlers were unprepared 
for them. The constant rumors afloat that a large body of 
savages, British, and tories, were coming, struck the people 
with so much panic that there was no effort made to give 
any such force as might come a warlike reception, but their 
energies were concentrated in measures of defence. 

The first Indian depredators, or at least the greater por- 
tion of them, were seen at a camp-fire by a party of hunters; 
and if the proper exertions had been made to cut them off, 
few other outrages would have followed. The supposition is 
that there were two parties of about fifteen each, who met at 
or near Neff' s Mill in the Cove. On their way thither, the 
one party killed a man named Hammond, who resided along 
the Juniata, and the other party killed a man named Ullery, 
who was returning from Nefif's Mill on horseback. Tliey 
also took two children with them as prisoners. 



196 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

The alarm was spread among the inhabitants, and they 
fled to the nearest forts with all despatch ; and on this first 
expedition they would have had few scalps to grace their 
belts, had the Dunkards taken the advice of more sagacious 
people, and fled too; this, however, they would not do. They 
would follow but half of Cromwell's advice: — they were 
willing to put their "trust in God," but they would not "keep 
their powder dry." In short, it was a compound they did 
not use at all. 

The savages swept down through the Cove with all the 
ferocity with which a pack of wolves would descend from 
the mountain upon a flock of sheep. Some few of the 
Dunkards, who evidently had a latent spark of love of life, 
hid themselves away; but by far the most of them stood 
by and witnessed the butchery of their wives and children, 
merely saying, " Goites wille sei gcthan.^' * How many Dunk- 
ard scalps they carried to Detroit cannot now be, and proba- 
bly never has been, clearly ascertained, — not less than thirty, 
according to the best authority. In addition to this, they 
loaded themselves with plunder, stole a number of horses, 
and under cover of night the triumphant warriors marched 
bravely away. 

Thomas Smith and George Woods, both, we believe, jus- 
tices of the peace at the time, wrote to President Wharton 
as follows: — 

November 27, 1777. 

Gentlemen : — The present situation of this country is so truly 
deplorable that we should be inexcusable if we delayed a mo- 
ment in acquainting you with it. An Indian war is now raging 
around us in its utmost fury. Before you went down they 
killed one man at Stony Creek ; since that time they have killed 

* ''God's will be done." This sentence was so frequently repeated by the 
Dunkards during the massacre, that the Indians must have retained a vivid 
recollection of it. ^During the late war with Great Britain, some of the older 
Indiana on the frontier were anxious to know of the Huntingdon volunteers 
whether the ^^Gotswiltahns^' still resided in the Cove. Of course our people 
could not satisfy them on such a vague point. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 197 

five on the mountain, over against the heads of Dunning's 
Creek, killed or taken three at the Three Springs, wounded one, 
and killed some children by Frankstown ; and had they not 
providentially been discovered in the night, and a party gone 
out and fired on them, they would, in all probability, have de- 
stroyed a great part of that settlement in a few hours. A small 
party went out into Morrison's Cove scouting, and unfortunately 
divided; the Indians discovered one division, and out of eight 
killed seven and wounded the other. In short, a day hardly 
passes without our hearing of some new murder; and if the 
people continue only a week longer to fly as they have done for 
a week past, Cumberland county will be a frontier. From Mor- 
rison's, Crayl's, and Friend's Coves, Dunning's Creek, and one- 
half of the Glades, they are fled or forted ; and, for all the defense 
that can be made here, the Indians may do almost what they 
please. We keep out ranging-parties, in which we go out by 
turns; but all that we can do in that way is but weak and in- 
efiectual for our defense, because one-half of the people are fled : 
those that remain are too busily employed in putting their fam- 
ilies and the little of their efl"ects that they can save and take 
into some place of safety, so that the whole burden falls upon 
a few of the frontier inhabitants, for those who are at a distance 
from danger have not as yet offered us any assistance. We are 
far from blaming the officers of the militia because they have 
not ordered them out, for if they had, they really can be of little 
or no service, not only for the foregoing reasons, but also for 
these : — Not one man in ten of them is armed. If they were 
armed, you are sensible, take the country through, there is not 
one fourth man that is fit to go against Indians, and it might 
often happen that in a whole class there might not be a single 
person who is acquainted with the Indians' ways of the woods; 
and if there should be a few good men, and the rest unfit for 
that service, those who are fit to take the Indians in their own 
way could not act with the same resolution and spirit as if they 
were sure of being properly supported by men like themselves. 
The consequence would be that the Indians, after gaining an 
advantage over them, would become much more daring and 
fearless, and drive all before them. A small number of select 
men would be of more real service to guard the frontiers than 
six times that number of people unused to arms or the woods. 



198 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

It is not for us to dictate what steps ought to be taken, but some 
steps ought to be taken without the loss of an hour. The safety 
of your country, of your families, of your property, will, we are 
convinced, urge you to do every thing in your power to put the 
frontiers in some state of defence. Suppose there were orders 
given to raise about one hundred rangers, under the command 
of spirited officers, who were well acquainted with the woods 
and the Indians and could take them in there own way. They 
could be raised instantly, and we are informed there are a great 
number of rifles lying in Carlisle useless, although the back 
country is suffering for the want of arms. It was a fatal step that 
was taken last winter in leaving so many guns when the militia 
came from camp ; about this place, especially, and all the coun- 
try near it, they are remarkably distressed for the want of guns, 
for when the men were raised for the army you know we pro- 
cured every gun that we could for their use. The country re- 
flect hard on us now for our assiduity on those occasions, as it 
now deprives them of the means of defence. But this is not 
the only instance in which we hear reflections which are not 
deserved. The safety of our country then loudly called on us 
to send all the arms to the camp that could be procured, and it 
now as loudly calls on us to entreat that we may be allowed 
some as soon as possible, as also some ammunition; as that 
which was intrusted to our care is now almost delivered out to 
the officers who are fortifying, and what remains of it is not fit 
for rifles.* We need not repeat our entreaties that whatever is 
done may be done as soon as possible, as a day's delay may be 
the destruction of hundreds. 

We are, in haste, gentlemen. 

Your most obedient, humble servants, 

George Woods. 
Thomas Smith. 
Bedford, Noveviber 27, 1777. 

The persons mentioned as having been killed belonged 
mostly to the Cove; but the number was greatly exaggerated, 
as ill fact but two were killed and one wounded. The other 
five escaped, and did not return until after the report of their 
death had gone abroad. The names of the killed we could 
not ascertain. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 199 

The band of Indians, after the Dunkard massacre, worked 
their way toward the Kittaning war-path, leaving behind 
them some few stragglers of their party whose appetite for 
blood and treasure had not been satiated. Among others, 
an old and a young Indian stopped at Neff' s Mill. Neflf was 
a Dunkard; but he was a single exception so far as resist- 
ance was concerned. He had constantly in his mill his 
loaded rifle, and was ready for any emergency. He had gone 
to his mill in the morning without any knowledge of Indians 
being in the neighborhood, and had just set the water-wheel 
in motion, when he discovered the two Indians lurking, 
within a hundred yards, in a small wood below the mill. 
Without taking much time to deliberate how to act, he 
aimed through the window, and deliberatelj^ shot the old 
Indian. In an instant the young Indian came toward the 
mill, and Neff ran out of the back door and up the hill. 
The quick eye of the savage detected him, and he fired, but 
missed his aim. Nothing daunted by the mishap, the savage 
followed up the cleared patch, when both, as if by instinct, 
commenced reloading their rifles. They stood face to face, 
not forty yards apart, on open ground, where there was no 
possible chance of concealment. The chances were equal: 
he that loaded first would be victor in the strife, the other 
was doomed to certain death. They both rammed home the 
bullet at the same time — with what haste ma}^ well be con- 
jectured. This was a critical juncture, for, while loading, 
neither took his eye off the other. They both drew their 
ramrods at the same instant, but the intense excitement of 
the moment caused the Indian to balk in drawing his, and 
the error or mishap proved fatal, because Neff took advant- 
age of it, and succeeded in priming and aiming before the In- 
dian. The latter, now finding the muzzle of Neff 's rifle 
bearing upon him, commenced a series of very cunning 
gyrations and contortions to destroy his aim or confuse him, 
so that he might jniss him or enable him to prime. To this 
end, he first threw himself upon his face; then, suddenly 
rising up again, he jumped first to the right, then to the left, 



200 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

then fell down again. NefF, not the least put off his guard, 
waited until the Indian arose again, when he shot him 
through the head. 

NefF, fearing that others might be about, left the mill and 
started to the nearest settlement. A force was raised and 
the mill revisited ; but it was found a heap of smouldering 
cinders and ashes, and the dead bodies of the Indians had 
been removed. It is altogether likely that the rear of the 
savage party came up shortly after NefF had left, fired the 
mill, and carried away their slain companions. 

For the part NefF took in the matter he was excommuni- 
cated from the Dunkard society. Nevertheless, he rebuilt 
his mill; but the Dunkards, who were his main support 
previously, refused any longer to patronize him, and he was 
eventually compelled to abandon the business. 

On the 4th of May, 1781, a band of marauding savages 
entered the Cove and murdered a man, woman, and two 
children, and took one man prisoner, within a mile of the 
fort of John Piper, who was then colonel of the county. 
Names or particulars could not be ascertained. 

At another time — period not remembered — several prison- 
ers were taken. 

The name of the Cove was changed from the " Great Cove " 
to " Morrison's Cove," in honor of a Mr. Morris, as early as 
1770. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 201 



CHAPTER XIX. 

TOMMY COLEMAN, THE INDIAN FIGHTER — SURPRISE OF THE DUNKARD 
MURDERERS, ETC. 

^ MONG all the early pioneers of the upper end of the 
^]\ Juniata Valley none was better known to the Indians 
(T|^ than Thomas Coleman. His very name inspired them 
with terror; and, in all their marauding, they carefully 
avoided his neighborhood. He was, emphatically, an In- 
dian-hater, — the great aim and object of whose life appeared 
to be centred in the destruction of Indians. For this he had 
a reason — a deep-seated revenge to gratify, a thirst that all 
the savage blood in the land could not slake, — superinduced 
by one of the most cruel acts of savage atrocity on record. 

It appears that the Coleman family lived on the West 
Branch of the Susquehanna at an early day. Their habita- 
tion, it would also appear, was remote from the settlements; 
and their principal occupation was hunting and trapping in 
winter, boiling sugar in spring, and tilling some ground they 
held during the summer. Where they originally came from 
was rather a mystery; but they were evidently tolerably 
well educated, and had seen more refined life than the forest 
afforded. Nevertheless, they led an apparently happy life 
in the woods. There were three brothers of them, and, what 
is not very common nowadays, they were passionately at- 
tached to each other. 

Early in the spring, — probably in the year 1763, — while 
employed in boiling sugar, one of the brothers discovered 
the tracks of a bear, when it was resolved that the elder two 
should follow and the younger remain to attend to the 
sugar-boiling. The brothers followed the tracks of the bear 
for several hours, but, not overtaking him, agreed to return 
to the sugar-camp. On their arrival, they found the remains 



202 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

of their brother boiled to a jelly in the large iron kettle! A 
sad and sickening sight, truly ; but the authors of the black- 
hearted crime had left their sign-manual behind them, — 
an old tomahawk, red with the gore of their victtm, sunk 
into one of the props which supported the kettle. They 
buried the remains as best they could, repaired to their 
home, broke up their camp, abandoned their place a short 
time after, and moved to the Juniata Valley. 

Their first location was near the mouth of the river ; but 
gradually they w^orked their way west, until they settled 
somewhere in the neighborhood of the mouth of Spruce 
Creek, on the Little Juniata, about the year 1770. A few 
years after, the two brothers, Thomas and Michael, the sur- 
vivors of the family, moved to the base of the mountain, in 
what now constitutes Logan township, near where Altoona 
stands, which then was included within the Frankstown 
district. 

These men w^ere fearless almost to a fault; and on the 
commencement of hostilities, or after the first predatory in- 
cursion of the savages, it appears that Thomas gave himself 
up solely to hunting Indians. He was in all scouting parties 
that were projected, and always leading the van when dan- 
ger threatened ; and it has very aptly, and no doubt truly, 
been said of Coleman, that when no parties were willing to 
venture out he shouldered his rifle and ranged the w-oods 
alone in hopes of occasionally picking up a stray savage or 
two. That his trusty rifle sent many a savage to eternity 
there is not a shadow of doubt. He, however, never said so. 
He was never knowai to acknowledge to any of his most inti- 
mate acquaintances that he had ever killed an Indian ; and 
yet, strange as it may seem, he came to the fort on several 
occasions wdth rather ugly wounds upon his body, and his 
knife and tomahawk looked as if they had been used to some 
purpose. Occasionally, too, a dead savage was found in his 
tracks, but no one could tell who killed him. For such re- 
serve Mr. Coleman probably had his own motives ; but that 
his fights with the savages were many and bloody is sus- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 203 

ceptible of proof even at this late day. We may incidentally 
mention that both the Colemans accompanied Captain Blair's 
expedition to overtake the tories, and Thomas was one of 
the unfortunate " Bedford Scout." 

To show how well Thomas was known, and to demonstrate 
clearly that he had on sundry occasions had dealings with 
some of the savages without the knowledge of his friends, 
we may state that during the late war with Great Britain, 
on the Canadian frontier, a great many Indians made in- 
quiries about " Old Coley;" and especially one, who repre- 
sented himself as being a son of Shingas, pointed out to some 
of Captain Allison's men, who were from Huntingdon county, 
a severe gash on his forehead, by which he said he should be 
likely to remember " Coley" for the balance of his life. 

In the fall of 1777, Fetter's Fort was occupied by some 
twenty-five men capable of bearing arms, belonging to the 
Frankstown district. Among these were both the Colemans, 
their own and a number of other settler's families. 

The Indians who had murdered the Dunkards, it appears, 
met about a mile east of Kittaning Point, where they en- 
camped, (the horses and plunder having probably been sent 
on across the mountain,) in order to await the arrival of the 
scattered forces. Thomas and Michael Coleman and Michael 
Wallack had left Fetter's Fort in the morning for the pur- 
pose of hunting deer. During the day, snow fell to the 
depth of some three or four inches; and in coming down 
the Gap, Coleman and his party crossed the Indian trail, and 
discovered the moccasin tracks, which they soon ascertained 
to be fresh. It was soon determined to follow them, as- 
certain their force, and then repair to the fort and give the 
alarm. They had followed the trail scarcely half a mile be- 
fore they saw the blaze of the fire and the dusky outlines of 
the savages seated around it. Their number, of course, could 
not be made out, but they conjectured that there must be in 
the neighborhood of thirty ; but, in order to get a crack at 
them, Thomas Coleman made his companions promise not 
to reveal their actual strength to the men in the fort. Ac- 



204 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

cordingly they returned and made report — once, for a won- 
der, not exaggerated, but rather underrated. The available 
force, amounting to sixteen men, consisting of the three above 
named, Edward Milligan, Samuel Jack, William Moore,. 
George Fetter, John Fetter, William Holliday, Richard 
Clausin, John McDonald, and others whose names are not 
recollected, loaded their rifles and started in pursuit of the 
savages. By the time they reached the encampment, it had 
grown quite cold, and the night was considerably advanced; 
still some ten or twelve Indians were seated around the fire. 
Cautiously the men approached, and with such silence that 
the very word of command was given in a whisper. When 
within sixty yards, a halt was called. One Indian appeared 
to be engaged in mixing paint in a pot over the fire, while 
the remainder were talking, — probably relating to each other 
the incidents attending their late foray. Their rifles were 
all leaning against a large tree, and Thomas Coleman con- 
ceived the bold design of approaching the tree, although it 
stood but ten feet from the fire, and securing their arms be- 
fore attacking them. The achievement would have been a 
brilliant one, but the undertaking was deemed so hazardous 
that not a man would agree to second him in so reckless and 
daring an enterprise. It was then agreed that they all 
should aim, and at the given word fire. Coleman suggested 
that each man should single out a particular savage to fire 
at; but his suggestion was lost upon men who were getting 
nervous by beginning to think their situation somewhat 
critical. Aim — we will not call it deliberate — was taken, the 
word "fire!" was given, and the sharp report of the rifles 
made the dim old woods echo. Some three or four of the 
savages fell, and those who were sitting around the fire, as 
well as those who were lying ui)on the ground, instantly 
sprang to their feet and ran to the tree where their rifles 
stood. In the mean time, Coleman said — 

" Quick ! quick ! boys, load again ! we can give them an- 
other fire before they know where we are !" 

But, on looking around, he was surprised to find nobody 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 205 

but Wallack and Holliday left to obey his order! The 
number proving unexpectedly large, the majority became 
frightened, and ran for the fort. 

The Indians, in doubt as to the number of their assail- 
ants, took an early opportunity to get out of the light caused 
by the fire and concealed themselves behind trees, to 
await the further operations of this sudden and unexpected 
foe. 

Coleman, Wallack, and Holliday, deeming themselves too 
few in number to cope with the Indians, followed their friends 
to Fetter's Fort. 

Early the next morning, all the available force of the fort 
started in pursuit of the Indians. Of course, they did not 
expect to find them at the encampment of the night pre- 
vious ; so they took provisions and ammunition along for 
several days' scout, in order, if possible, to overtake the 
savages before they reached their own country. To this 
end, Coleman was appointed to the command, and the 
march was among those denominated by military men as 
forced. 

When they reached the scene of the previous night's work, 
the evidence was plain that the savages had departed in the 
night. This the hunters detected by signs not to be mis- 
taken by woodsmen ; there was not a particle of fire left, and 
the coals retained no warmth. The tracks of the savages 
west of the fire, too, showed that they conformed to those 
east of the fire, in appearance, whereas, those made by the 
hunters in the morning looked quite differently. It was 
then evident that the Indians had a start of some six or 
eight hours. 

On the spot where the fire had been the small earthen 
paint-j)ot was found, and in it a portion of mixed paint. Near 
the fire, numerous articles were picked up : — several scaljDing- 
knives, one of which the owner was evidently in the act of 
sharpening when the volley was fired, as the whetstone was 
lying by its side; several tomahawks, a powderhorn, and a 
number of other trifling articles. The ground was dyed 



206 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLfiY. 

with blood, leaving no doubt remaining in regard to their 
execution the night previous. They had both killed and 
wounded, — but what number was to remain to them forever 
a mystery, for they carried both dead and wounded with 
them. 

This was a singular trait in savage character. They never 
left the body of a dead or wounded warrior behind them, if 
by any possible human agency it could be taken with them. 
If impossible to move it far, they usually buried it, and con- 
cealed the place of burial with leaves; if in an enemy's 
country, they removed the remains, even if in a state of par- 
tial decay, on the first opportunity that offered. To prevent 
the dead body of a brave from falling into the hands of an 
enemy appeared with them a religious duty paramount even 
to sepulcher. As an evidence of this, Sam Brady, the cele- 
brated Indian-fighter, once waylaid and shot an old Indian 
on the Susquehanna who was accompanied by his two sons, 
aged respectively sixteen and eighteen years. The young 
Indians ran when their father fell, and Brady left the body 
and returned home. Next morning, having occasion to 
pass the place, he found the body gone, and by the tracks he 
ascertained that it had been removed by the lads. He fol- 
lowed them forty miles before he overtook them, bearing 
their heavy burden with the will of sturdy work-horses. 
Brady had set out with the determination of killing both, 
but the sight so affected him that he left them to pursue 
their way unharmed ; and he subsequently learned that they 
had carried the dead body one hundred and sixty miles. 
Brady said that was the only chance in his life to kill an 
Indian which he did not improve. It may be that filial af- 
fection prompted the young savages to carry home the re- 
mains of their parents ; nevertheless, it is known that the dead 
bodies of Indians — ordinary fighting-men — were carried, 
without the aid of horses, from the Juniata Valley to the 
Indian burial-ground at Kittaning, and that too in the same 
time it occupied in making their rapid marches between the 
two points. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 207 

But to return to our party. After surveying the ground a 
few moments, they followed the Indian trail — no difficult mat- 
ter, seeing that it was filled with blood — until they reached 
the summit of the mountain, some six or eight miles from 
the mouth of the Gap. Here a consultation was held, and 
a majority decided that there was no use in following them 
farther. Coleman, however, was eager to continue the chase, 
and declared his willingness to follow them to their strong- 
hold, Kittaning. 

This issue, successful though it was, did not fail to spread 
alarm through the sparsely-settled country. People from 
the neighborhood speedily gathered their families into the 
fort, under the firm impression that they were to be harassed 
by savage warfare not only during the winter, but as long 
as the Revolutionary struggle was to continue. However, 
no more Indians appeared; this little cloud of war was soon 
dispelled, and the people betook themselves to their homes 
before the holidays of 1777, where they remained during 
the winter without molestation. 

It is said of old Tommy Coleman — but with what degree 
of truth we are unable to say — that, about twenty years ago, 
hearing of a delegation of Indians on their way to Wash- 
ington, he shouldered his trusty old rifle, and went to Holli- 
daysburg. There, hearing that they had gone east on the 
canal packet, he followed them some three miles down the 
towing-path, for the express purpose of having a crack at one 
of them. This story — which obtained currency at the time, 
and is believed by many to this day — was probably put into 
circulation by some one w^ho knew his inveterate hatred of 
Indians. An acquaintance of his informs us that he had 
business in town on the day on which the Indians passed 
through ; hence his appearance there. His gun he always 
carried with him, even on a visit to a near neighbor. That 
he inquired about the Indians is true; but it was merely out 
of an anxiety to see whether they looked as they did in days 
of yore. His business led him to Frankstown, but that 



208 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

business was not to shoot Indians ; for, if he still cherished 
any hatred toward the race, he had better sense than to show 
it on such an occasion. 

He died at his residence, of old age, about fifteen years 
ago, beloved and respected by all. Peace to his ashes! 




ARCH SPRING. 



HISTOKY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 211 



CHAPTER XX. 

SINKING VALLEY — THE LEAD MINES — FORT ROBERDEAU — INDIAN 
MURDER, AND HEROIC CONDUCT OF A WOMAN — ENCOUNTER WITH A 
SAVAGE — MURDER OF ROLLER AND BEBAULT, ETC. 

yjL NE of the most prominent points in Pennsylvania, 
a|Ll during the Revolution, was Sinking Valley, owing, in 
^1 a great measure, to the fact that it had a fort, under 
military discipline, — where the sentry marched upon ram- 
parts, where the reveille aroused the inmates at the dawn of 
day, and where people felt secure in the immediate presence 
of muskets with bristling bayonets, a pair of cannon, and an 
abundance of ammunition, and where, for a long time, the 
greater part of the lead used by the Continental army was 
procured. 

There is eveiy reason to believe that the lead mines of 
Sinking Valley were known to the French as early as 1750. 
Although they searched extensively for minerals, it is not 
probable that they ventured as far into the Penn lands as 
Sinking Valley, unless the secret of the existence of the 
mines had been imparted to them by the Indians. 

The Indians of the Juniata, after they had acquired the 
use of fire-arms, could always procure an abundance of lead. 
This, they said, they procured — almost pure — on a ridge, 
near where Mifflintown now stands, in Kishicoquillas Val- 
ley; and also at the foot, or in one of the ravines, of the 
mountain. With true Indian craft, the warriors kept the 
precise location of the lead mines a secret. The scarcity of 
lead, in early days, made it a valuable commodity to the 
settlers; and many an Indian's jug was filled with whiskey 
on promise of showing the lead mines — promises that were 
always "kept to the ear, but broken to the hope." It is, 
therefore, pretty evident that all the lead-ore the savages dis- 



212 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

played was procured in Sinking Valley ; if they obtained 
any at other places along the Juniata, the mines have not 
yet been discovered, and not for the lack of many thorough 
searches for them, either. 

The supposition that the French had been prospecting ex- 
tensively in Sinking Valley many years ago is based upon 
the fact that, previous to Roberdeau's erecting the fort, sev- 
eral old drifts or openings were discovered, as well as an ir- 
regular trench, extending from the upper to the lower lead 
mines, — a distance of nearly six miles. The vestiges of this 
trench are still visible, and there is no question but what the 
digging of it and the immense amount of labor necessary 
for its construction was performed in the full confidence that 
they would be rewarded by the discovery of a silver mine, 
or, at least, an inexhaustible bed of pure lead-ore. 

The fact that lead-ore existed in Sinking Valley was as- 
certained by the settlers about 1763, and the consequence 
was that a number of persons took up their residence there, 
but without purchasing lands. The certainty of the exist- 
ence of lead, and the fabulous stories of the existence of vari- 
ous other precious metals, induced the proprietary family to 
reserve it to themselves, and to that end George Woods sur- 
veyed it for them a short time previous to the Revolution. 

The earliest accounts we have of any permanent settlers 
in Sinking Valley bears date of 1760. There is a well- 
authenticated story of an occurrence that once took place in 
1763, but neither names nor dates have been transmitted. 
Mr. Maguire had frequently heard the woman's name men- 
tioned, who became quite a heroine, and lived in Sinking 
Valley until some time during the Revolution; but it had 
slipped his memory. 

The story was that a man occupied a cabin in the upper 
end of the valley, and one day left it to go to the mouth of 
the Bald Eagle, leaving his wife and child at home. No 
savages had been in the neighborhood for some time, and, 
in fact, no friendly Indians either, except some few who re- 
sided in what is now known as Tuckahoe Valley. Fortu- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 213 

nately, the man possessed two rifles, both of which he loaded, 
placed one over the chimney-piece, the other upon his 
shoulder, and departed on his errand. While the woman 
was busy attending to her household affairs, she saw two 
Indians, partly concealed by some bushes in front of the 
house. In an instant she took down the loaded gun, and 
watched their motions through the window. In a few min- 
utes both of them stealthily approached the house, when she 
pointed the gun at the foremost savage and fired ; the bullet 
striking him in the breast, he fell to rise no more. The 
other savage came directly toward the house, when the 
woman, still retaining in her grasp the rifle, ascended a lad- 
der to the loft, where she stood with the gun in an attitude 
of defiance. The quick eye of the Indian detected her move- 
ments, and he followed, but with the usual caution of a sav- 
age ; and when his head reached the opening, he peered into 
the dark garret to see his intended victim. Grasping one of 
the puncheons which composed the floor with one hand, he 
attempted to draw up his rifle with the other, when a dis- 
charge followed, and he fell lifeless to the floor. The woman, 
more dead than alive with fear, remained for a time in the 
loft, but, hearing no noise, she at length ventured down- 
stairs, and at the foot of the ladder found the savage perfectly 
dead, lying in a pool of blood. She took her child out of the 
cradle, and started for the mouth of the Bald Eagle, but for- 
tunately met her husband but a few rods from the house. 

All things taken into consideration, and especially the 
fact that the woman had never pulled the trigger of a gun 
before, this was probably one of the most heroic acts on 
record. 

The earnest neighbors were summoned, and, on examin- 
ing into the matter, it was concluded that, after the flrst In- 
dian had been shot, the second one immediately cocked his 
rifle, and that while ascending the ladder the trigger must 
have been touched by a twig on the hickory rung of the 
ladder. The bullet had struck him under the chin, passed 
through his tongue, and lodged in his brain. His death 



214 HISTORY OF THP: JUNIATA VALLEY. 

was certainly an interposition of Providence in behalf of the 
woman and her infant child. 

Sinking Valley proper never could have been much of a 
resort of the Indians, for no traces of the existence of any 
villages in it have ever been discovered, neither have any 
relics ever been found or exhumed in it, that we can hear of, 
with the exception of some few arrow-heads and a skull, 
found near the Arch Springs. 

The attention of Council was called to the existence of 
lead in Sinking Valley in a letter from Major-General John 
Armstrong to President Wharton, dated Yorktown, 23d Feb- 
ruary, 1778. He says : — 

As at present there appears to be a scarcity of the important 
article of lead, and it is certain a Mr. Harman Husbands, now a 
member of Assembly for our State, has some knowledge of a 
lead mine situate in a cerain tract of land not far from Franks- 
town, formerly surveyed for the use of the proprietary family. 

General Gates, President of the Board of War, having signi- 
fied his earnest desire to see and converse with Mr. Husbands on 
the subject of the mine, and being greatly hurried with business, 
I have, at this instance, undertaken the present line, that you 
would please to use your influence with the House of Assembly 
and with Mr. Husbands, that he, as soon as possible, may be 
spared to concert with the Board of War on the best measures 
for making a trial of and deriving an early supply from that 
source. 

The general is of opinion with me, that the mine ought to — or 
may at least for the present — be seized by and belong to the State ; 
and that private persons, who, without right, may have sat down 
on that reserved tract, should neither prevent the use of the lead 
nor be admitted to make a monopoly of the mine. I am of 
opinion that a few faithful laborers may be sufficient to make 
the experiment, and that the lieutenant of the county, or some 
other good man, may be serviceable in introducing the business- 

I cannot doubt the compliance of the honorable Assembly 
and Council. 

P. S. — It may be proper that a summary consideration be first 
taken, whether the State will make the effort alone or leave it to 




THE CAVE IN SINKING VALLEY. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 217 

the conduct of the Board of War ; that, at any rate, the salutary 
•effects, if any, may be gained to the public. The water-carriage 
is a great thing. Query — Whether the ore should be run into 
-portable bars at the bank, or at Middleton? 

At the writing of the above, some few persons had found 
their way to the mines, raised small quantities of ore, and 
smelted it ; but their operations were contracted for want of 
tools and the proper appliances for smelting. They confined 
themselves to such ore as was on or near the surface, and 
made small oven furnaces, and smelted with charcoal. 

The Council soon took the suggestion of General Arm- 
strong in hand; and it was resolved to give the general su- 
perintendence of the mining operations to General Daniel 
Koberdeau, then a member of Congress, who went forward 
to Carlisle to make the necessary arrangements. From that 
place he wrote to President Wharton, on the 1 7th of April, 
1778, as follows:— 

The confidence the honorable the representatives of our State 
have placed in me by a resolve, together with the pressing and 
dndispensible necessity of a speedy supply of lead for the public 
service, induced me to ask leave of absence of Congress to pro- 
-ceed with workmen to put their business into a proper train, and 
have reached this place on that errand ; and, having collected 
men and materials, and sent them forward this day, propose to 
follow them to-morrow. My views have been greatly enlarged 
since I left York on the importance of the undertaking and 
hazard in prosecuting it, for the public works here are not fur- 
nished with an ounce of lead but what is in fixed ammunition ; on 
the other hand, the prevailing opinion of the people, as I advance 
into the country, of Indian depredations shortly to commence, 
might not only deter the workmen I stand in need of, but aff"right 
the back settlers from their habitations, and leave the country 
■exposed and naked. To give confidence to one and the other, I 
have drawn out of the public stores here twenty-five stand of 
arms and a quantity of gunpowder, and intended to proceed this 
morning, but was applied to by John Caruthers, Esq., Lieutenant 
of the County, and William Brown, Commissary of Provisions 



218 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

for the Militia, who advised me on the subject of their respective- 
departments, and, by the account they gave of the orders from 
your honorable board to them as to calling out and supplying 
the militia, I find the State is guarding against the incursions of 
of the savages. This confirmed me in a preconceived intention 
of erecting a stockade fort in the neighborhood of the mine I am 
about to work, if I could stir up the inhabitants to give their 
labor in furnishing an asylum for their families in case of im- 
minent danger, and thus prevent the evacuation of the country. 
Mr. Caruthers, convinced of the necessity of the work for the 
above purposes, condescendingly off'ered one company of the 
militia, which he expected would consist of about forty men, 
under my command, to co-operate in so salutary a business, — 
as it consisted with the orders of Council respecting the station, 
being only a deviation of a very few miles, — and that one other 
company, of about the same number, should also join me, for 
the greater expedition, until the pleasure of Council was known, 
which he presumed might coincide with such dispositions, other- 
wise it might be deranged by an immediate express ; and, that 
the pleasure of Council might be known without delay, I give 
this intelligence. If these measures are for the good of the 
public wheel, [weal,] I hope to be honored with a confirmation, 
and orders to the militia to exert themselves in carrying the de- 
sign into immediate execution ; if otherwise, I rely on the well- 
known candor of Council that I shall not be suspected of any 
sinister design in leaning to an offer freely made as above, from, 
I believe, the best motives, much less that I have presumed to 
interfere with the arrangements of Council, as this early notice 
is full proof to the contrarj'-, as the whole is in their power as 
much as if nothing had passed between the lieutenant and my- 
self. I have only to add, on this subject, that your design of 
patrolling-parties of good riflemen shall be encouraged by me. 
The commissary, Mr. Brown, being destitute of money, I would 
have spared it out of my small stock, but that, by my interfer- 
ence 1200 dollars — all he asked — was supplied by a public offi- 
cer here; but further sums will, he said, be soon necessary, and 
he expressed much concern for the scarcity of provisions. I was 
advised very lately, by Judge McKean, of a quantity of salted 
beef in the neighborhood of Harris's Ferry ; and before I left 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 219 

York, I applied to him by letter to advise me of the quantity 
and quality, with a design to purchase, as I intended to employ 
a much greater number of men than are already employed at the 
lead mine, to carrry on the business with vigor. If Council 
should think proper to order a quantity of said provisions up.the 
Juniata for the militia, I should be glad of being favored with 
what I want through the same channel. I intend to build such 
a fort as, with sufficient provisions, under the smile of Providence, 
would enable me to defend it against any number of Indians that 
might presume to invest it. If I am not prevented, by an oppor- 
tunity of serving the State eminently by a longer stay in the wilder- 
ness, I purpose to return to my duty in Congress in about three 
weeks. Will Council favor me with the exemption of a number 
of men, not exceeding twenty, — if I cannot be supplied by the 
adjutant-general, who has orders co- extensive with my want of 
smelters and miners from deserters from the British army, — to suf- 
fer such to come to this part of the country, contrary to a pre- 
ceding order ? If Council should think such a measure of ex- 
emption for the public good, I should be glad to receive their or- 
ders on that head. I would not intrude my sentiments on 
Council, but am of opinion that, besides the supplying of pro- 
visions to the militia in Bedford, it is very important that the 
intended stockade should be seasonably furnished with that ar- 
ticle; therefore, if it should not be thought advisable to improve 
the above hint, that the provisions already mentioned in the 
neighborhood of Harris's should be left unnoticed until I shall 
have an opportunity of furnishing my own supplies from that 
stock. If I shall be advised by Mr. McKean, it is in my ofiFer. 
My landing is at Water Street, in [on the] Juniata; but I could, 
on notice, receive any supply from Standing Stone. 

In the mean time, the persons employed went forward to 
the mines, and, under the direction of a Scotch miner named 
Lowrie, commenced sinking shafts and raising ore at the up- 
per mine. General Roberdeau arrived at Standing Stone 
after the tory expedition to Kittaning, being, as it would ap- 
pear, his second visit ; the first was a mere tour of observa- 
tion. From this point he wrote as follows to John Carothers : — 



220 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Standing Stone, April 23, 1778. 
Sir : — The enclosed was put into my hands, to be forwarded 
to you by express. The intelHgence it contains is abundantly 
confirmed by several persons I have examined, both fugitives 
from the frontiers and some volunteers that have returned for 
an immediate supply of ammunition and provisions, to be sent 
forward to Sinking Spring Valley, as the troops will be obliged 
to quit the service except they are supplied without delay. Want 
of arms prevents those who would turn out. I shall furnish 
what I brought from Carlisle as soon as they come forward ; but 
it is very unfortunate that these arms, and the ammunition, 
which is coming by water, have been retarded by contrary wind, 
and probably the lowness of the water. To remedy this, I have 
despatched two canoes this morning to meet them on the way. 
I am giving Mr. Brown, who is here, every assistance in my 
power ; but your aid is greatly wanted to stimulate the militia, 
and furnish arms, ammunition, pack-horses, and every thing ne- 
cessary in your line of duty. The insurgents from this neighbor- 
hood, I am informed, are about thirty. One of them (Hess) has 
been taken, and confession extorted, from which it appears that 
this banditti expect to be joined by three hundred men from the 
other side of the Alleghany ; reports more vague mention one 
thousand whites and savages. The supply of provisions for so 
great a number renders it improbable ; but, in answer to this, I 
have been informed by the most credible in this neighborhood, 
that strangers, supposed to be from Detroit, have been this winter 
among the disaffected inhabitants, and have removed with them. 
If you have authority to call out the militia, in proportion to 
the exigence of the times, I think it of great importance that a 
considerable number of men should be immediately embodied 
and sent forward to meet the enemy ; for it cannot be expected 
that the volunteers will long continue in the service, and I find 
that the recruiting the three companies goes on too slowly to 
expect a seasonable supply from them of any considerable num- 
ber. If you have not authority to call the necessary aid of 
militia, you, no doubt, will apply to the honorable the Council, 
and may furnish them with my sentiments, and to the Board of 
War for arms and ammunition. With ten men here, under the 
command of Lieutenant Cluggage, in Continental service until 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 221 

the Ist of December next, I intend to move forward as soon as 
the arms, ammunition, and other things come forward, to aflford 
an escort to Sinking Spring Valley, where I shall be glad to 
meet as great a number of militia as you will station there, to 
enable me to erect a stockade, to secure the works so necessary 
to the public service and give confidence to the frontier inhabi- 
tants, by aflFording an asylum for their women and children. 
These objects, I doubt not, you will think worthy of your im- 
mediate attention and utmost exertion, which, I can assure you, 
— making the fullest allowance for the timidity of some and 
credulity of others, — is a very serious matter ; for without im- 
mediate aid the frontiers will be evacuated, for all that I have 
been able to say has been of no avail with the fugitives I have 
met on the roads, — a most distressing sight, of men, women, and 
children, flying through fear of a cruel enemy. 

I am, respectfully, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, 

Daniel Roberdeau. 

The enclosure spoken of in Roberbeau's letter was a note 
from Robert Smith to Robert Cluggage, of which the follow- 
ing is a copy : — 

Sir : — Be pleased to send expresses to Lieutenant Carothers by 
the first opportunity, to give him some account of insurrections 
on the South Mountain, and likewise to inspect very closely into 
who is abroad at this time and upon what occasion, as there is a 
suspicion, by information, of other insurrections rising in other 
parts of the county of Cumberland ; and that in so doing you 
will oblige your friend to serve, Robert Smith. 

April 23, 1778. 

The letter of Gen. Roberdeau, as well as Smith's, were 
sent to President Wharton by Lieutenant Carothers, en- 
closed in another of his own dated at Carlisle, on the 27th 
of April. 

Previous to this, however, he sent a letter to the Council, 
dated on the 24th, in which he speaks of the deplorable 
condition of the frontier and the constant alarms from the 
tories. He said : — 



222 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

The marching classes of the fifth battalion I have been 
obliged to send up to Sinking Valley and Bald Eagle, which will 
amount to near seventy privates. The frontiers in those parts 
have been greatly alarmed of late by a number of tories who 
have banded together, threatening vengeance to all who have 
taken the oath of allegiance to the States. This moment I have 
received an express from Kishicoquillas for a supply of arms, 
and that Colonel McElevy, of Bedford county, came there express 
himself, with an account that a body of tories, near three hun- 
dred and twenty, in and above Standing Stone, had collected 
themselves together and driven a number of the inhabitants from 
Standing Stone Town. Immediately Colonel Buchanan and 
Colonel Brown marched off with a few men who could be got 
equipped, and we are waiting with patience the issue. 

General Roberdeau wrote to Council on the 27th of April, 
after Captain Blair's return, as follows: — 

Sinking Spring Valley, April 27, 1778. 
Sir: — I have little more time to refer you to the enclosed ex- 
amination, taken in great haste, but correct as it respects the tes- 
timony. The confiscation of the efiects of the disaffected in these 
parts is very irregular, and the brutality offered to the wives and 
children of some of them, as I have been informed, in taking 
from them even their wearing apparel, is shocking. I wish the 
magistrates were furnished with the late law respecting confisca- 
tion, and that they were more capable ministers of justice; the 
one I have seen is such a specimen of the popular election of 
these officers as I expected. I am happy to inform you that a 
very late discovery of a new vein promises the most ample sup- 
ply ; but I am very deficient in workmen. Mr. Glen is with me, 
to direct the making and burning of bricks, and is to come up 
to build a furnace, by which time I expect to be in such forward- 
ness as to afford an ample supply to the army. The want of 
provision I dread notwithstanding the active endeavors of Mr. 
Brown, for it is scarcely to be got ; therefore I beg leave to refer 
you to a hint on this subject in my letter from Carlisle. Of forty 
militia, I have, at most, seven with me, which retards building 
a stockade to give confidence to the inhabitants, who were all on 
the wing before I reached this. I send Richard Weston, under 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 223 

guard, to Carlisle jail, to wait your orders. He is conducted by 
Lieutenant John Means, of the militia. The inhabitants are 
hunting the other insurgents, and hope they will all be taken, 
but wish any other the trouble of examining them, as my hands 
are full. I am, with respectful salutations to Council, sir, 

Y' most ob*, humb' serv', 

Dan'' Roberdeau. 

The general speaks of the torj^ Hess (in his first letter) as 
if he had been forced to confess. This is an error. Hess 
made a voluntary confession after the return of Captain 
Blair, and after some of Blair's men had partially hung him 
and let him off. 

The statement that McElevy reported at Kishicoquillas 
that three hundred and twenty tories had driven off some of 
the inhabitants of Standing Stone Town is no doubt true 
enough, but no such occurrence ever took place. The fears 
of the people no doubt prompted McElevy to exaggerate, in 
order to get aid forthwith. Shortly after the arrival of Buch- 
anan and Brown at Standing Stone, the Blair expedition re- 
turned, so that their services were not required. 

General Roberdeau complained of the manner in which 
confiscations were conducted. He was grossly misinformed. 
The facts in the case are simply these: — On the receipt of 
the news of the disasters met by the tories at Kittaning, 
many of the tory families fled, leaving everything behind 
them. These articles, even if wearing apparel was included, 
could not well escape confiscation unless they were pitched 
into the street. There is no instance on record of the women 
and children of tories having any thing like wearing-ap^^arel 
taken from them. If such acts were committed, they were 
without the sanction of the officers or the people, by outlaws 
who lived by plunder, who may be found in any commu- 
nity, and for whose acts most assuredly the patriots should 
not have been held accountable. 

General Roberdeau's stay at the mines must have been 
brief. The next we hear of him is in a letter to Vice-Presi- 
dent Bryan, dated at York, on the 30th of May of the same 



224 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

year. The direction of affairs at the mines was probably- 
left in the hands of Lowrie and Cluggage. 

It is altogether uncertain how long the mines were carried 
on by government, but not longer, probably, than till the 
fall of 1779; and what the total yield of lead was during 
that time we cannot ascertain. In one place in the Records 
we find an order forwarded to one of the sub-lieutenants of 
the county for five hundred pounds; and we also hear that 
quantities were issued to the militia at sundry times. There- 
must have been some kind of a bargain existing between 
government and Roberdeau for taking out the lead, for, in a 
letter to Vice-President Bryan for some pay due him, he says^ 
" My late engagement in the lead-works has proved a moth 
to my circulating cash, and obliged me to make free with a 
friend in borrowing." He also says, in a letter to President. 
Reed, bearing date November 10, 1779: — 

Sir: — Permit me to ask the favor of you to make my request 
known to the honorable Board of your Presidence that they 
would be pleased this day to order me payment for the ten hun- 
dred pounds of lead delivered to your order some months ago. 
The price of that article is so enormous that I should blush to 
make a demand, but my necessity keeps equal pace with the 
rapid depreciation of our money ; and particularly as I purpose 
leaving the city to-morrow, dependence has been had on the 
money in question, for my advances are insupportably great, for 
my defected purpose of supplying lead to Continent, which, en- 
tirely through default of Congress in not furnishing the necessary 
defences, has been entirely stopped, as the honorable the Assem- 
bly have been informed. After the most diligent inquiry, I can- 
not find less than six dollars per pound demanded for lead by 
the quantity, — a price which, Mr. Peters just now informed me, 
the Board of War was willing to give. 

This epistle near about fixes the time of the abandonment 
of the mines ; and it also shows that lead commanded rather 
an exhorbitant price at that time — payable of course, in 
Continental funds. 

In 1779, Sinking Spring Valley contained, according to 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 225 

an anonymous writer, " sixty or seventy families, living in 
log-houses." The principal portion of these were foreigners, 
who were taken there to work the mines. After Roberdeau's 
project had fallen to the ground, in consequence of the 
scarcity of the ore and the immense expense of mining and 
melting it, these miners attempted for a while to carry on 
operations for themselves. Their close proximity to the In- 
dians, and the fact that several incursions were made into 
the valley by the savages in search of plunder and scalps, 
made those men, unused to border life, quit, and seek refuge 
in the Atlantic cities. The fort was evacuated by the gov- 
ernment militia. Nevertheless it was still a place of refuge, 
and was used by the settlers of Sinking Valley and Bald " 
Eagle up to the close of the war. 

In 1781, Jacob Roller, Jr., and a man named Bebault, 
were massacred by Indians in Sinking Valley. Few particu- 
lars of this massacre are known, and many contradictory 
stories still exist in regard to it. We give Mr. Maguire's 
version of it, but would at the same time state that he did 
not vouch for the authenticity of it, as he gathered it from 
the exaggerated rumors that in those days followed the re- 
cital of current events. 

Roller, it appears was an active and energetic frontier-man, 
bold, fearless, and daring ; and the common belief was that 
his unerring rifle had ended the days of many a red-skin. 
Be that as it may, however, it is certain that the Indians knew 
him, and marked him out for a victim long before they suc- 
ceeded in despatching him. Several small roving bands 
were in the habit of coming down into the valley after the 
mines were abandoned ; but no favorable opportunity offered 
for a long time to kill Roller. 

On one occasion, four of the settlers had met at Roller's 
house for the purpose of going on a hunt for deer. Early in 
the morning, when just ready to start. Roller heard the 
breaking of a twig near his cabin. He peered out into the 
deep gloom of the misty morning, and discovered three In- 
dians crouching near an oak tree. It was very evident that 
15 



226 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 

the Indians had not been close enough to the house to ascer- 
tain the number within, and the inmates were in a state of 
doubt as to the number of savages. Profound silence was 
observed, and it was resolved to shoot from the window as 
soon as the light was sufficiently strong to render their aim 
certain. The Indians were evidently waiting for Roller to 
come out of his house. At length, when they thought the 
proper time had come, the settlers gathered at the window, 
and thrust out their rifles as silently as possible. The quick 
eyes of the savages saw, even by the hazy light, that there 
were too many muzzles to belong to one man, and they took 
to the woods with all the speed they could command, leav- 
ing behind them a quantity of venison and dried corn, and 
a British rifle. 

On another occasion, Roller had an encounter with a sin- 
gle Indian in the woods, which probably stands unparalleled 
in the history of personal encounters between a savage and 
a white man. Roller left home about seven o'clock in the 
morning, in search of deer. He had ranged along the edge 
of the mountain an hour or two when he heard a rifle-shot 
but a short distance from him, and a minute had scarcely 
elapsed before a wounded doe came in the direction where 
he stood. To shoot it was but the work of an instant, be- 
cause he supposed that one of his neighbors had wounded 
It ; for the thought of the presence of Indians never entered 
his head. Yet it appears that it was an Indian who fired. 
The Indian mistook the crack of Roller's rifle for that of a 
companion left at the base of the mountain. Under this im- 
pression, the Indian, anxious to secure the doe, and Roller, in- 
tent on bleeding her, both neglected one of the first precautions 
of the day, — viz. : to reload their rifles. Roller was leaning 
over the doe, when he heard the crust of snow breaking in 
a thicket near him. He jumped to his feet, and was con- 
fronted by the Indian, — a tall, muscular fellow, who was 
quite as large as Roller. The savage, well aware of the fact 
that neither of the rifles were loaded, and probably satisfied 
in ; meeting " a foeman worthy of his steel," deliberately 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 227 

placed his gun against a tree by the side of Roller's, and, 
drawing his tomahawk, he cast a glance of savage delight at 
the white man before him, which seemed to imply that he 
would soon show him who was the better man of the two. 
Roller, anticipating his intentions, drew his tomahawk and 
stood on the defensive. The savage made a spring, when 
Roller jumped aside, and the Indian passed. The latter 
suddenly wheeled, when Roller struck him upon the elbow 
of the uplifted hand, and the hatchet fell. Fearing to stoop 
to regain it, the savage drew his knife, and turned upon 
Roller. They clinched, and a fearful struggle ensued. Roller 
held the savage's right arm, so as to render useless his knife, 
while the Indian grasped firmly the hand in which Roller 
held his hatchet, and in this manner they struggled until 
they both were tripped by the carcass of the doe ; still both 
retained their hold. Roller fortunately grasped his knife, 
lying beside the doe, with his left hand, and thrust it into 
the side of the Indian. The struggle now became terrible, 
and by one powerful effort the savage loosened himself and 
sprang to his feet ; but Roller was as quick as he was. In 
attempting to close again, the savage' stabbed Roller in the 
shoulder and in the arm. Roller had dropped his hatchet 
in regaining his feet, and the combat was now a deadly one 
with knives. They cut and thrust at each other until their 
buckskin hunting-shirts were literally cut into ribbons and 
the crusted snow was dyed with their blood. At length, faint 
with the loss of blood, the combat ceased, by mutual consent, 
as it were, and the Indian, loosening himself from Roller's 
grasp, took his rifle and disappeared. Roller stanched, with 
frozen snow and some tow, the only dangerous wound he had, 
and managed to reach his home. He was stabbed in four or 
five places, and it was some weeks before he fully recovered 
from his wounds. The skeleton of the savage, with his rifle 
by his side, was found the succeeding summer on the top of 
Warrior Ridge. 

The time of Roller's death is not positively known. Mr. 
Maguire thought it was in the fall of 1781. From subse- 



228 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

quent evidences, three Indians came down from the mount- 
ain, avoiding the fort of Jacob Roller, Sr., which was located 
at the head of Sinking Valley, and passed on down through 
the valley to the house of Bebault, whom they tomahawked 
and scalped. 

From thence they went to the house of Jacob Roller, Jr., 
who was alone at the time, his family being at his father's 
fort. He was murdered and scalped while at work in his 
corn-field. His absence from the fort at night created alarm, 
and early next morning a party went down to his house to 
see if anything had befallen him. While searching for him, 
one of the men discovered blood on the bars, which soon led 
to the discovery of his body in the field. From the foot- 
prints in the ground, it was plain that the murder had been 
committed by two men and a boy between twelve and four- 
teen years of age. Roller had been shot and scalped, his 
head shockingly mangled with a tomahawk, and the region 
of his heart was gashed with a dozen cuts and stabs made by 
a sharp soalping-knife. The inference was that, after shoot- 
ing Roller, the men induced the lad to tomahawk and stab 
him. In other words, they gave him a lesson in butchery 
and courage. 

Bebault was found shot and scalped, although still alive, — 
a shocking spectacle to look upon. He was so much ex- 
hausted by the loss of blood as to be unable to give any ac- 
count of the transaction. 

The bodies of both were taken to the fort and buried, and, 
as soon as possible, a large party, consisting of the Rollers, 
Beattys, Rickets, &c., started in pursuit. They follow^ed the 
trail for nearly fifty miles, but at last lost it, and were com- 
pelled to return without overtaking the murderers. 

Every settler knew Roller, and his death cast a universal 
gloom over the valley. The manner of it alarmed the settle- 
ment to such an extent that such fall crops as were still out 
were suffered to rot upon the field, as no force could be 
spared from the forts, and people would no longer risk their 
lives to the mercy of the marauders. 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 229 

Jacob Roller, Jr., was the oldest of seven brothers, all 
powerful fellows, and active frontier-men. 

There are quite a number of the decendants of the seven 
brothers, who reside in various places, — some in the West, 
but probably a majority of them at Williamsburg, or in the 
neighborhood of Springfield Furnace, in Blair county. 

Richard R. McCabe, Esq., in a series of reminiscences of 
old times, published in 1832, while speaking of the lead 
mines in Sinking Valley, said: — 

The Upper Lead Mine, as it is called, on the lands now belong- 
ing to a German family of the name of Crissman, exhibits but 
the traces of former excavation, and trifling indications of ore. 
The lower one, about a mile in direct distance from the Little 
Juniata, was worked within my remembrance, under the super- 
intendence of a Mr. Sinclair, a Scotch miner from the neighbor- 
hood of Carron Ironworks, in the "land o' cakes." The mine 
was then owned by two gentlemen named Musser and Wells. 
The former, I think, lived and died in Lancaster county. Mr. 
Wells was probably a Philadelphian. Three shafts were sunk 
to a great depth on the side of a limestone-hill. A drift was 
worked into the bowels of the hill, possibly a hundred yards, 
six feet high, and about the same width. This was expensive. 
No furnace or other device for melting the ore was ever erected 
at this mine. Considerable quantities of the mineral still lie 

about the pit's mouth. The late Mr. H , of Montgomery 

county, who had read much and practised some in mining, (so 
far as to sink some thousand dollars,) visited this mine in 1821, 
in company with another gentleman and myself, and expressed 
an opinion that the indications were favorable for a good vein 
of the mineral. But the vast mines of lead in the West, such as 
Mine a Barton and the Galena, where the manufacture of lead 
can be so much more cheaply carried on, must forever prevent 
a resumption of the business in Sinking Valley, unless, indeed, 
some disinterested patriot shall procure the adoption of a tariff of 
protection for the lead-manufacturer of the happy valley. 

Notwithstanding Mr. McCabe's prediction implied that 
the lead mines of Sinking Valley would in all probability 



230 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

never be worked again, some enterprising individuals from 
New York prospected at the upper mine so late as 1852, and 
soon found, as they supposed, sufficient encouragement to 
sink shafts. Accordingly, several were sunk, the German 
heirs agreeing to take a certain percentage on all ore raised. 
A regular company was organized, and, for a while, the 
"Sinking Valley Lead Mining Company" stock figured 
among the bulls and bears of Wall Street, in New York. 
Extensive furnaces for smelting, and other operations on a 
large scale, were talked of; but suddenly, one very fine day, 
the ore, like the Yankee's horse, "^m eout;" the superintend- 
ent left, the miners followed, and the stock depreciated so 
rapidly that it could have been purchased for about one cent 
on the dollar. Latterly, we have heard nothing whatever of 
the Lead Mining Company. There is unquestionably lead- 
ore still left at the upper mine ; but, in order to make the 
mining operations pay, foreign wars must create a demand 
at increased prices. 

The people of Sinking Valley long entertained the idea 
that stores of mineral wealth still existed in it; and a legend 
was current that a man from the city of Philadelphia, on 
the strength of a letter from Amsterdam, came there to seek 
for a portion of it in the shape of a canoe-load of bullion, 
buried by two men many years ago. The person who 
searched found some of the guide-marks pointed out to him, 
but he did not reach the bullion. The treasure, it is gener- 
ally believed to this day by the older residents, w^as found 
by a Mr. Isett, while engaged in digging a mill-race. This 
belief was based upon the fact that, previous to digging the 
race, Mr. Isett was poor, but became wealth}^ and abandoned 
the digging of the race before it was half completed. 

We have incidentally mentioned the name of a Scotch 
miner taken to Sinking Valley by General Roberdeau, named 
Lowrie. He was the head of an illustrious line of descend- 
ants, some of whom have figured in Congress, at the bar, on 
the bench, and in the pulpit. One of tlie present Supreme 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 231 

Judges of Pennsylvania is a grandson of the old Scotch 
miner, and nearly all of the name in the Union are his lineal 
descendants. 

Truly may it be said that Sinking Valley was once a place 
of note. 



232 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

TORIES OF THE VALLEY — THEIR UNFORTUNATE EXPEDITION TO JOIN 
THE INDIANS AT KITTANING — CAPTAIN JOHN WESTON, THE TORY 
LEADER — CAPTAIN THOMAS BLAIR — CAPTURE OF THE BROTHERS 
HICKS — HANGING A TORY — NARROW ESCAPE OF TWO OF WESTON's 
MEN, ETC. 

(^ SUCCESSFUL rebellion is a revolution ; an unsuc- 
Jj\ cessful attempt at revolution is a rebellion. Hence, 
<^ had the Canadians been successful in their attempt to 
throw off the British yoke in 1837, the names of the leaders 
would have embellished the pages of history as heroes and 
patriots, instead of going down to posterity as convicts trans- 
ported to the penal colonies of England. Had the efforts of 
the Cubanos to revolutionize the island of Cuba been crowned 
with success, the cowardly " Jillibusteros " would have rated as 
brave men, and, instead of perishing ignominiously by the 
infamous garote and starving in the dismal dungeons of 
Spain, they would now administer the affairs of state, and re- 
ceive all the homage the world pays to great and successful 
warriors. On the other hand, had the revolution in Texas 
proved a failure, Burleson, Lamar, Houston, and others, who 
carved their names upon the scroll of fame as generals, heroes, 
and statesmen, would either have suffered the extreme pen- 
alty of the Mexican law, or at least occupy the stations of 
obscure adventurers, with all the odium which, like the 
poisoned shirt of Nessus, clings to those who are unsuccess- 
ful in great enterprises. 

The same may be said of the American Revolution. If 
those who pledged their "lives, their fortunes, and their 
sacred honor," to make the colonics independent of all po- 
tentates and powers on earth, had lost the stake, the infamy 
which now clings to the memory of the tories would be at- 
tached to that of the rebels, notwithstanding the latter 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 233 

fought in a glorious cause, endured the heats of summer 
and braved the peltings of the winter's storms, exhausted 
their means, and shed their blood, for the sacred cause in 
which they were engaged. For this reason, we should not 
attach too much infamy to the tories merely because they took 
sides with England ; but their subsequent acts, or at least a 
portion of them, were such as to leave a foul blot upon their 
names, even had victory perched upon the cross of St. George. 
The American people, after the Revolution, while reposing 
on the laurels they had won, might readily have overlooked 
and forgiven the weak and timid men who favored the cause 
of the crown under the firm conviction that the feeble colonies 
could never sever themselves from the iron grasp of England ; 
but when they remembered the savage barbarities of the 
tories, they confiscated the lands of all who were attainted 
with treason, drove them from the country, and attached 
black and undying infamy to their names. 

To some it may appear strange — nevertheless it is true — 
that, in 1777, the upper end of the Juniata A^'alley con- 
tained nearly as many tories as it did patriots. This is not 
a very agreeable admission to make by one who has his 
home in the valley; nevertheless, some of the acts of these 
tories form a part of the history of the time of which we 
write, and must be given with the rest. Let it be under- 
stood, however, that as some of the descendants of those men, 
who unfortunately embraced the wrong side, are still alive 
and in our midst, we suppress names, because we not only 
believe it to be unprincipled in the extreme to hold the son 
responsible for the sins and errors of the fathers, but we 
think there is not a man in the valley now who has not 
patriotic blood enough in his veins to march in his country's 
defence at a moment's warning, if occasion required it. 

The great number of tories in what now constitutes Hun- 
tingdon county, may, in a great measure, be attributed to 
the fact, that, living as they did upon the frontier, they had 
no idea of the strength or numbers composing the "rebel" 
army, as they called it. They knew the king's name to be 



234 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

" a tower of strength ;" and they knew, too, the power and 
resources of England. Their leaders were shrewd men, who 
excited the fears of the king's followers by assuring them 
that the rebels would soon be worsted, and all of them gib- 
beted. 

The most of these tories, according to Edward Bell, re- 
sided in Aughwick, Hare's Valley, on the Raystown Branch 
in Woodcock Valley, at Standing Stone, Shaver's Creek, 
Warrior's Mark, and Canoe Creek. They held secret meet- 
ings, generally at the house of John Weston, who resided a 
mile and a half west of Water Street, in Canoe Valley. All 
their business was transacted with the utmost secresy ; and 
those who participated in their meetings did so under an 
oath of " allegiance to the king and death to the rebels." 

These meetings were frequently attended by tory emis- 
saries from Detroit, who went there advised of all the move- 
ments of the British about the lakes ; and it is thought that 
one of these men at length gave them a piece of intelligence 
that sealed the doom of a majority of them. 

It appears that a general plan was formed to concentrate 
a large force of Indians and tories at Kittaning, then cross 
the mountain by the Indian Path, and at Burgoon's Gap di- 
vide, — one party march through the Cove and Conoco- 
cheague Valleys, the other to follow the Juniata Valley, and 
form a junction at Lancaster, killing all the inhabitants on 
their march. The tories were to have for their share in this 
general massacre all the fine farms on the routes, and the 
movable property was to be divided among the Indians. It 
would seem, however, that Providence frustrated their plans. 
They elected John Weston their captain, and marched away 
in the dead of night, without drums or colors, to join the 
savages in a general massacre of their neighbors, early in 
the spring of 1778 — all being well armed with rifles fur- 
nished by the British emissaries, and abundance of ammu- 
nition. They took up the line of march — avoiding all set- 
tlements — around Brush Mountain, and traveled through 
the Path to Kittaning. When near the fort, Weston sent 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 235 

forward two men to announce their coming. The savages, 
to the number of ten or twelve, accompanied the messengers; 
and when they met the tories, Weston ordered his men to 
" present arms." The order proved a fatal one ; for the In- 
dians, ever suspecting treachery, thought they had been en- 
trapped, and, without any orders, fired a volley among the 
tories, and killed Weston and some eight, or probably ten, of 
his men, then turned and ran toward the town. The dis- 
heartened tories fled in every direction as soon as their leader 
fell. 

Although these tories marched from the settlements under 
cover of night, and with the greatest possible caution, all 
their movements were watched by an Indian spy in the em- 
ploy of Major Cluggage. This spy was a Cayuga chief, known 
as Captain Logan, who resided in the valley at the time, — 
subsequently at an Indian town called Chickalacamoose, 
where the village of Clearfield now stands. He knew the 
mission of the tories, and he soon reported their departure 
through the settlements. Of course, the wildest and most 
exaggerated stories were soon set afloat in regard to the 
number constituting Weston's company, as well as those in 
Kittaning ready to march. Colonel Piper, of Yellow Creek, 
George Woods, of Bedford, and others, wrote to Philadelphia, 
that two hundred and fifty tories had left Standing Stone, to 
join the Indians, for the purpose of making a descent upon 
the frontier, — a formidable number to magnify out of thirty- 
four; yet such was the common rumor. 

The greatest terror and alarm spread through the settle- 
ments, and all the families, with their most valuable effects, 
were taken to the best forts. General Roberdeau, who had 
the command of the forces in the neighborhood, had left 
Standing Stone a short time previous, leaving Major Clug- 
gage in command. The latter was appealed to for a force to 
march after Weston. This he could not do, because his 
command was small, and he was engaged in superintending 
the construction of the fort at Sinking Valley, the speedy 
completion of which was not only demanded to afford pro- 



236 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

tection to the people, but to guard the miners, who were us- 
ing their best exertions to fill the pressing orders of the Rev- 
olutionary army for lead. 

Cluggage was extremely anxious to have Weston and his 
command overtaken and punished, and for this purpose he 
tendered to Captain Thomas Blair, of Path Valley, the com- 
mand of all who wished to volunteer to fight the tories. The 
alarm was so general, that, in forty-eight hours after Wes- 
ton''s departure, some thirtj^-five men were ready to march. 
Twenty of them were from Path Valley, and the remainder 
were gathered up between Huntingdon — or Standing Stone, 
as it was then still called — and Frankstown.* At Canoe 
Valley the company was joined by Gersham and Moses Hicks, 
who went to act in the double capacity of scouts and inter- 
preters. They were brothers, and had — together with the 
entire family — been in captivity among the Indians for some 
six or seven years. They were deemed a valuable acquisi- 
tion. 

Captain Blair pushed on his men with great vigor over the 
mountain, by way of the Kittaning trail; and when he ar- 
rived where the path crosses the head-waters of Blacklick, 
they were suddenly confronted by two of Captain Weston's 
tories, well known to some of Blair's men, who, on the im- 
pulse of the moment, would have shot them down, had it 
not been for the interference of Captain Blair, who evidently 
was a very humane man. These men begged for their lives 
most piteously, and declared that they had been grossly de- 
ceived by Weston, and then gave Captain Blair a true state- 
ment of what had occurred. 

Finding that Providence had anticipated the object of 
their mission, by destroying and dispersing the tories, Cap- 

* It is to be regretted that Mr. Maguire was so feeble, when giving us an 
account of this expedition, that we feared to ask him for a repetition of the 
names of Captain Blair's command. He knew the names of all of them, but 
he mentioned them in such rapid succession that we only remember Brother- 
ton, Jones, Moore, Smith, two brothers named Hicks, Nelson, Coleman, Wal- 
lack. Fee, Gano, Ricketts, Caldwell, Moore, Holliday, and one of the Rollers. 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 237 

tain Blair ordered his men to retrace their steps for home. 
Night coming upon them, they halted and encamped near 
where Loretto now stands. Here it was found that the pro- 
visions had nearly run out. The men, on the strength of 
the reported destruction of Weston, were in high spirits, 
built a large fire, and passed the night in hilarity, although 
it was raining and exceedingly disagreeable. At the dawn 
of day, Gersham and Moses Hicks started out in search of 
game for breakfast, for some of the men were weak and dis- 
heartened for the want of food. These wood-rangers trav- 
elled three miles from the camp without anticipating any 
danger whatever, when Gersham shot a fine elk, which, in 
order to make the load as light as possible, the brothers 
skinned and disemboweled, shouldered the hind-quarters, 
and were ready to return to the camp, when five Indians 
suddenly came upon them and took them prisoners. They 
were again captives, and taken to Detroit, from which place 
they did not return until after peace was declared. These 
men unquestionably saw and experienced enough of Indian 
life to fill an interesting volume. 

In the mean time, the company becoming impatient at 
the continued absence of the Hicks, several small parties 
were formed to go in search of them. One of these parties 
fell in with three Indians, and several shots were exchanged 
without injuring any person. The Indians took to the woods,, 
and the men returned to the camp. The other party found 
the place where the elk had been skinned, and took the re- 
mains to the camp; the meat was speedily roasted and di- 
vided among the men, and the line of march again taken 
up. The certain capture of the guides, and the Indians seen 
by the party in search of them, induced the belief that a larger 
body of them than they wished to encounter in their half- 
famished condition was in the neighborhood, considerably 
accelerated their march. 

The sufferings endured by these men, who were drenched 
by torrents of rain and suffered the pangs of hunger until 
they reached the settlements on the east side of the mount- 



238 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

ain, were such as can be more readily imagined than de- 
scribed. But they all returned, and, though a portion of 
them took sick, they all eventually recovered, and probably 
would have been ready at any time to volunteer for another 
expedition, even with the terrors of starvation or the scalp- 
ing-knife staring them in the face. 

The tories who, through the clemency of Captain Blair, es- 
caped shooting or hanging, did not, it seems, fare much bet- 
ter; for they, too, reached the settlements in an almost fam- 
ished condition. Fearing to enter any of the houses occupied, 
they passed the Brush Mountain into Canoe Valley, where 
they came to an untenanted cabin, the former occupants 
having fled to the nearest fort. They incautiously set their 
rifles against the cabin, entered it, and searched for food, 
finding nothing, however, but part of a pot of boiled mush 
and some lard. In their condition, any thing bearing re- 
semblance to food was a god-send, and they fell vigorously 
to work at it. While engaged in appeasing their appetite, 
Samuel Moore and a companion, — probably Jacob Roller, 
Sr., if we mistake not, — who were on a hunting expedition, 
happened to pass the cabin, saw the rifles, and immediately 
secured them, when Mr. Moore walked in with his gun cocked, 
and called upon the tories to surrender ; which peremptory 
order they cheerfully complied with, and were marched to 
Holliday's Fort. On the way thither, one of them became 
insolent, and informed Moore and his companion that in a 
short time they would repent arresting them. This incensed 
Roller, and, being an athletic man, when they arrived at the 
fort he fixed a rope to the tory's neck, rove it over a beam, 
and drew him up. Moore, fortunately, was a more human 
man, and persuaded his companion to desist. They were 
afterward taken to Bedford ; but whether ever tried or not, 
we have not been able to ascertain. 

Captain Blair's men, while passing through what is now 
known as Pleasant Valley, or the upper end of Tuckahoe, 
on their return, paid a visit to a tory named John Hess, who, 
it is said, was armed, and waiting the return of Weston to 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 239 

join his company. They found Hess in his house, from 
which they took him to a neighboring wood, bent down a 
hickory sapling and fastened the branches of it around his 
neck, and, at a given signal, let him swing. The sight was 
so shocking, and his struggles so violent, that the men soon 
repented, and cut him down before he was injured to any 
extent. It appears from that day he was a tory no longer, 
joined the rangers, and did good service for his country. His 
narrow escape must have wrought his conversion. 

The tories who escaped the fatal error of the Indians at 
Kittaning never returned to their former homes. It was 
probably as well that they did not, for their coming was 
anxiously look for, and their greeting would unquestionably 
have been as warm a one as powder and ball could have been 
■capable of giving. Most of them made their way to Fort 
Pitt, and from thence toward the South. They eventually 
all sent for their families ; but " the land [of the Juniata Val- 
ley] that knew them once knew them no more forever ! " 

Captain Blair, whom we have frequently mentioned, soon 
after or about the close of the war moved to what is known 
as the mouth of Blair's Gap, west of Hollidaysburg, where 
John Walker now lives. He was an energetic man, and, by 
his untiring exertions, succeeded in getting a pack-horse 
road cut through his gap at an early day. 

His son. Captain John Blair, a prominent and useful citi- 
zen, flourished for many years at the same place. His use- 
fulness and standing in the community made him probably 
the most conspicuous man of his day in this section; and, 
when Huntingdon county was divided, his old friends paid 
.a, tribute to his memory in giving the new county his name. 



240 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE TORY HARE — MURDER OF LOUDENSLAGER — ABDUCTION AND 
MURDER OF MRS. EATON AND CHILDREN — TREATMENT OF HARE BY 
THE SETTLERS, ETC. 

^L^URING the troubles which followed immediately after 
9 ij the declaration of war, a great many depredations were 
'^^ committed by the tories, that were invariably charged 
to the Indians. As we have stated in the preceding chapter, 
the patriots and the tories, in point of numbers, were about 
equally divided in many of the settlements of what now 
constitutes Huntingdon county; yet the victims of tory 
wrongs could not for a long time bring themselves to believe 
that they were inflicted by their neighbors. Barns and their 
valuable contents were laid in ashes, cattle were shot or poi- 
soned, and all charged to the Indians, although scouts were 
constantly out, but seldom, if ever, got upon their trail. 

In a small isolated valley, about a mile south of Jack's Nar- 
rows, lived a notorious tory named Jacob Hare. We could 
not ascertain what countryman Hare was, nor any thing of 
his previous history. He owned a large tract of land, which 
he was exceedingly fearful of losing. Hence he remained 
loyal to the king, under the most solemn conviction, no 
doubt, that the struggle would terminate in favor of the 
crown. He is represented as having been a man of little in- 
telligence, brutal and savage, and cowardly in the extreme. 
Although he did not take up arms positively against the 
Colonists, he certainly contributed largely to aid the British 
in crushing them. 

A short time previous to the Weston Tory Expedition, a 
young man named Loudenslager, who resided in the upper 
end of Kishicoquillas, left his home on horseback, to go to 
Huntingdon, where Major Cluggage was enlisting men to 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 243 

guard the lead mines of Sinking Valley. It was young 
Loudenslager's intention to see how things looked, and, if 
they suited, he would join Cluggage's command and send his 
horse home. As he was riding leisurely along near the head 
of the valley, some five or six Indians, accompanied by a 
white man, appeared upon an eminence, and three of them, 
including the white man, fired at him. Three buckshot and 
a slug lodged in his thigh, and one bullet whistled past his 
ear, while one of the buckshot struck the horse. The animal 
took fright, and started of at a full gallop. Loudenslager, 
although his thigh-bone was shattered and his wound bled 
so profusely that he left a trail of blood in his wake, heroic- 
ally clung to his horse until he carried him to the Standing 
Stone Fort. 

Weak and faint from the loss of blood, when he got there 
he was unable to move, and some of the people carried him 
in and cared for him as well as they could ; but he was too 
much exhausted to give any account of the occurrence. 
After some restoratives were applied, he rallied, and gave a 
statement of the affair. His description of the white man 
in company with the Indians was so accurate, that the peo- 
ple knew at once that Hare, if not the direct author, was the 
instigator, of this diabolical outrage. 

Loudenslager, for want of good medical attendance or an 
experienced surgeon, grew worse, and the commander, to 
alleviate his sufferings if possible, placed him in a canoe, 
and despatched him, accompanied by some men, on his way 
to Middletown, — then the nearest point of any importance; 
but he died after the canoe had descended the river but a 
few miles. 

The excitement occasioned by the shooting of young Lou- 
denslager was just at its height when more bad news was 
brought to Standing Stone Fort. 

On the same day, the same party that shot Loudenslager 
went to the house of Mr. Eaton, (though probably unaccom- 
panied by Hare,) in the upper end of the same valley; but, 
not finding any men about the house, — Mr. Eaton being 



244 HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

absent, — they took captives Mrs. Eaton and her two children, 
and then set fire to all the buildings. The work of devasta- 
tion was on the point of being completed when Mr. Eaton 
reached his home. He did not wait to see his house entirely 
reduced to ashes, but rode to Standing Stone as fast as his 
horse could carry him, and spread the alarm. The exasper- 
ated people could hardly muster sufRcient patience to hear 
the particulars before they started in pursuit of the enemy. 
They travelled with all the speed that energetic and deter- 
mined men could command, scouring the country in every 
direction for a period of nearly a week, but heard no tidings 
of Mrs. Eaton and her children, and were forced to give her 
up as lost. 

This aroused the wrath of the settlers, and many of them 
were for dealing out summary punishment to Hare as the 
instigator; but, in the absence of proof, he was not even 
brought to trial for the Loudenslager murder, of which he 
was clearly guilty. The act, however, put people upon their 
guard; the most notorious known tory in the county had 
openly shown his hand, and they knew what to expect of 
him. 

Mr. Eaton — broken-hearted, and almost distracted — hunted 
for years for his wife and children; and, as no tidings could 
be had of them, he was at last reluctantly forced to believe 
that the savages had murdered them. Nor was he wrong in 
his conjecture. Some years afterward the blanched skeletons 
of the three were found by some hunters in the neighbor- 
hood of Warrior's Mark. The identity of the skeletons was 
proved by some shreds of clothing — which were known to 
belong to them — still clinging to their remains. 

When Captain Blair's rangers, or that portion of them 
raised in Path Valley, came across to the Juniata, they had 
an old drum, and — it is fair to infer, inasmuch as the still- 
house then seemed to be a necessary adjunct of civilization 
— sundry jugs of whiskey accompanying them. At Jack's 
Narrows lived a burly old German, named Peter Vandeven- 
der, who, hearing the noise, came to his door in his shirt- 
sleeves, with a pipe in his mouth. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 245 

"Waas ter tuyfel ish ter meaning of all dish?" inquired 
old Vandevender. 

" We are going to hunt John Weston and his tories," said 
one of the men. 

" Hunt dories, eh ? Well, Captin Plair, chust you go 
ant hunt Chack Hare. He ish te tamtest dor}^ in Bennsyl- 
vania. He dold Weshton ash he would haff a gompany to 
help him after he come mit ter Inchins." 

What Vandevender told Blair was probably true to the 
letter ; for one of the inducements held out to the tories to 
accompany Weston was that they would be reinforced by all 
the tories in the county as soon as the first blow was struck ; 
but he was not raising a company. He was too cowardly 
to expose himself to the danger of attending such a pro- 
■ceeding. 

As soon as Vandevender had communicated the fore- 
going, the company, with great unanimity, agreed to pay 
Hare a visit forthwith. The drum was laid aside, and the 
volunteers marched silently to his house. A portion of them 
went into the house, and found Hare, while Blair and others 
searched the barn and outbuildings to find more of the tories. 
On the arrival of Captain Blair at the house, some of his 
men, in a high state of excitement, had a rope around Hare's 
neck, and the end of it thrown over a beam, preparatory to 
hanging him. Blair interposed, and with great difficulty 
prevented them from executing summary vengeance upon 
the tory. In the mean time, one of the men sharpened his 
scalping-knife upon an iron pot, walked deliberately up to 
Hare, and, while two or three others held him, cut both his 
ears off dose to liis head! The tory, during these proceedings, 
begged most piteously for his life — made profuse promises to 
surrender every thing he had to the cause of liberty ; but 
the men regarded his pleadings as those of a coward, and 
paid no attention to them, and, after cropping him, marched 
back to Vandevender's on their route in search of Weston. 

On their arrival at the Standing Stone, they communi- 
cated to the people at the fort what they had done. The res- 



246 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

idents at the Stone only wanted a piece of information like 
this to inflame them still more against Hare, and, expressing 
regrets that he had not been killed, they immediately formed 
a plot to go down and despatch him. But there were tories 
at the Stone. Hare soon got wind of the affair, placed his 
most valuable effects upon pack-horses and left the country. 

The failure of Weston's expedition, and the treatment and 
flight of Hare, compelled many tories, who had openly 
avowed their sentiments, to leave this section of the country, 
while those who were suspected were forced into silence and 
inactivity, and many openly espoused the cause of the col- 
onies. Still, many remained who refused to renounce their 
allegiance to the king, and claimed to stand upon neutral 
ground. Those who had taken up arms against Great 
Britain, however, declared that there were but two sides to 
the question, and no neutral ground ; — that those who were 
not for them were against them. 

Hare was declared and proclaimed an " attainted traitor," 
and his property was confiscated and sold. Who became 
the purchaser we could not ascertain ; but, after peace was 
declared and the treaty between the United States and Great 
Britain ratified. Hare returned, and claimed the benefit of 
that part of the treaty which restored their possessions to all 
those of his Majesty's subjects that had not taken up arms 
against the colonists. As there was no direct evidence that 
he killed Loudenslager, Congress was compelled to pur- 
chase back and restore his property to him. 

He lived and died on his farm. The venerable Mrs. Armi- 
tage, the mother-in-law of Senator Cresswell, of Hollidaysburg, 
remembers seeing him when she was quite young and he an 
old man. She says he used to conceal the loss of his ears by 
wearing his hair long. 

During life he was shunned, and he died unregretted ; but, 
we are sorry to say, his name is perpetuated : the place in 
which he lived, was cropped, and died, is still called 
Hare's Valley. The people of Huntingdon should long since 
have changed it, and blotted from their memory a name 
linked to infamy and crime. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 247 




CHAPTER XXIII. 

MOSES DONALDSON — CAPTURE AND MURDER OF HIS WIFE AND TWO 

CHILDREN. 

^OSES DONALDSON lived in Hartslog settlement, 
where Hatfield's iron-works are now located, near 
Alexander. In 1777, after the first Indian outrages 
had been committed, the neighboring settlers met, and re- 
solved for their better protection to build a stockade fort 
somewhere near the river. After the building was decided 
upon, the location became a subject of contention — one party 
wanting the fort at Lytle's, another at Donaldson's, and for 
a while party strife ran high. Lytic, however, succeeded in 
outgeneralling Donaldson, — not because his location was the 
most eligible, but simply because he was the most popular 
man. The fort was built at Lytle's, under Donaldson's pro- 
test, who declared that he never would go into it, — that if 
danger threatened he would fort at Standing Stone, — a vow 
he religiously kept, at the expense of the loss of his wife and 
two children, we regret to say. 

He continued living at his own house until the spring of 
1778, when Indian alarms became so frequent that he re- 
moved his family to Huntingdon. In a short time the fears 
of the people were somewhat lulled, and most of them re- 
turned to their homes again. Mr. Donaldson, finding his 
farm-work pressing, returned to his home about the first of 
June, and prepared to make hay. 

On the 11th of the month, a girl who was after cows dis- 
covered in Anderson's bottom, near the mouth of Shaver's 
Creek, an encampment of some five or six Indians. With- 
out their discovering her, she made her way back and com- 
municated the intelligence, and the news was soon circulated 
among the settlers. The five Indians were considered the 
advance of a large party ; otherwise they might readily have 



248 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

been cut off by a dozen resolute men. Instead of making 
the least effort to ascertain the number of the savages, the 
people fled to the forts in the utmost consternation. 

On the same evening, a convoy of canoes landed at the 
mouth of Shaver's Creek, and the soldiers stopped at an old 
inn on the bank of the creek. They had taken a load of 
supplies to Water Street Landing for the Lead Mine Fort, 
and were returning with lead-ore, consigned to IMiddletown 
for smelting. The state of affairs was laid before the com- 
mander of the convoy, and Mr. Anderson prevailed upon 
him to stay a day or two, until the alarm had subsided. 

On the afternoon of the 12th, Donaldson was warned that 
the Indians had been seen a second time, and advised to 
fort at Lytle's without delay. This he refused to do point- 
blank, but immediately packed up, put his family into a canoe, 
and started for Huntingdon. When he reached the mouth 
of Shaver's Creek, he tied the canoe to the root of a tree at 
the creek, and went up to transact some business with Mr. 
Anderson, accompanied b}'' his oldest child — a lad nine or 
ten years of age, — leaving his wife and two younger children 
in the canoe. 

After an absence of half an hour, the boy returned to the 
canoe; but, as he came in sight of it, he observed a number 
of Indians taking his mother and the children out of it. He 
hastened back to the inn and told the soldiers, but they con- 
sidered it a fabrication, and paid no attention to what he 
said. From thence he hastened to Anderson's and told his 
father, who immediatel}^ followed him, and found it only too 
true that his family had been a!bducted — that, too, within 
the hearing, and almost within sight, of twelve soldiers. 
Donaldson went to the inn, and appealed to the comman- 
dant to start his force in immediate })ursuit. This, however, 
was found totally impracticable, as they had been making a 
sort of holiday by getting drunk, and were unfit for duty of 
any kind; which was to be regretted, for the timely notice 
of the outrage would easily have enabled them, had they 
been in condition, to overtake the savages. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 249 

Early next morning the soldiers started in pursuit in one 
•direction, and the people of the settlement formed into a 
strong party and went in another, and in this manner the 
-entire country was scoured. Toward evening a bonnet be- 
longing to one of the children was found in a rye-field, near 
where the Maguire farm now stands, which indicated the 
direction the savages had taken. 

Next day the search was resumed and continued until 
night ; but no tidings whatever could be obtained of the 
route the savages had taken, and they were finally obliged to 
give them up as lost. 

Several years elapsed before their fate was known^ Thomas 
Johnston and Peter Crum, while hunting up Spruce Creek, 
probably a mile and a half from its mouth, came upon the 
■camp of a friendly Indian family, near whose wigwam an 
an old woman was engaged in boiling sugar, and who in- 
formed them that she had long been waiting for some white 
hunters to come up, as she had something to show them. 
She then led the way, and, half a mile off", showed them the 
skeletons of a grown person and two children. This news 
was communicated to Mr. Donaldson, and he had the skele- 
tons taken to Shaver's Creek, with a view of interring them. 
But here a new difficulty arose. Mr. Eaton had not yet re- 
covered his family, abducted from Kishicoquillas Valley, 
and there was no reason why these skeletons might not be 
those of his family. The matter was finally determined by 
a weaver, who testified to a piece of Mrs. Donaldson's short- 
gown, found near her remains. 

When we reflect over this act of savage atrocity, we are 
free to confess that we look upon it as one of the most inhu- 
man and revolting on record. The woman, with her two 
children, taken to a neighboring wood, and there, in all 
probability, tomahawked and scalped in succession, — the 
children witnessing the agony of the dying mother, or per- 
haps the mother a witness to the butchery of her helpless 
offspring, — the very recital chills the blood. 



250 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

The son, who accompanied his father to Anderson's, died 
at a very advanced age, at or near Lock Haven, a year or 
two ago. 

William Donaldson, of Hollidaysburg, is a son of Moses 
Donaldson by a second wife. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 253 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

DEPREDATIONS AT THE MOUTH OF SPRUCE CREEK — MURDER OF LEVI 
HICKS — SCALPING OF HIS CHILD. 






^E have already mentioned the Hicks family in a 
preceding chapter, and incidentally mentioned their 
"i^**^ captivity for a number of years among the Indians. 
We have made the most unremitting exertions, yet we have 
failed to ascertain any thing like a satisfactory account of 
this remarkable family. The name of Gersham Hicks fig- 
ures in l^Iiner's " History of Wyoming" as an Indian guide, 
while in the Archives he is noticed as an Indian interpreter, 
previous to the war of the Revolution. Where they were 
taken, or when released, is not positively known. One thing, 
however, is quite certain : that is, that they made themselves 
masters of both the habits and language of many of the 
Indians. 

Mrs. Fee thinks they came to Water Street immediately 
after their release from captivity, and settled there. During 
their captivity they imbibed the Indian habit to such a de- 
gree that they wore the Indian costume, even to the colored 
eagle-feathers and little trinkets which savages seem to take 
so much delight in. Gersham and Moses were unmarried, 
but Levi, the elder, brought with him a half-breed as his 
wife, by whom he had a number of children. They all set- 
tled at Water Street, and commenced the occupation of farm- 
ing. Subsequently, Levi rented from the Bebaults the tub- 
mill at or near the mouth of Spruce Creek. 

When the Indian troubles commenced in the spring of 
1778, he was repeatedly urged to go either to Lytle's or 
Lowry's Fort, and let the mill stand until the alarm had sub- 
sided. Hicks, however, obstinately refused, declaring that 
he was safe. It is thus apparent that he relied upon his in- 



254 HISTORY O-F THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

timate knowledge of the Indian character and language for 
safety, in case any of the marauders should find their way 
to what he looked upon as a sort of an out-of-the-way place, — 
a fatal case of misplaced confidence, notwithstanding it was 
asserted that the fall previous a party had attacked his 
cabin, and that, on his addressing them in their own lan- 
guage, they had desisted. 

On the 12th of May, 1778, Hicks started his mill in the 
morning, as was his usual custom, and then repaired to 
breakfast. While in the house he procured a needle and 
thread, returned to the mill, replenished the hopper, and 
then seated himself near the door and commenced mending 
a moccasin. He had been occupied at this but a minute or 
two before he heard a rustling in the bushes some ten or 
fifteen j^ards in front of him. The idea of there being In- 
dians in the vicinity never entered his head; nobody had 
seen or heard of any in the settlement. Consequently, in 
direct violation of an established custom, he walked forward 
to ascertain the cause of the commotion in the bushes, leav- 
ing his rifle leaning against the mill. He advanced but 
one or two steps before he was shot through the heart. 

His wife, who was in the house at the time, hearing the 
report, ran to the door, and in an instant comprehended how 
matters stood. She opened the back door, ran down the 
river to a fording, crossed over, and with all the speed she 
could command, hastened over the mountain to Lytle's Fort. 
Near Alexandria she met a man on horseback, who, noticing 
her distracted condition, demanded what the matter was. 
She explained as best she could, when the man turned back 
and rode rapidly toward the fort to apprise the people of 
what had occurred. It was then that the woman fairly re- 
covered her senses, and, on looking around for the first time, 
she noticed her little son, about ten years old, who had fol- 
lowed her. The sight of him reminded her of her family of 
children at home, at the mercy of the savages, and all the 
mother's devotion was aroused within her. She picked up 
her boy, and, exhausted as she wasy hastened toward the fort 
with him. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 255 

As it subsequently appeared, one of the children of Mrs. 
Hicks, — a girl between three and four years of age, — directly 
after her escape, went out to see her father, just while the 
savages were in the act of scalping him. She was too young 
to comprehend the act clearly, but, seeing the blood about 
his head, she commenced crying, and screamed, " My pappy ! 
my pappy! what are you doing to my poor pappy?" 

One of the Indians drew his tomahawk from his belt and 
knocked the child down, after which he scalped it ; and, 
without venturing to the house, the savages departed. Mrs. 
Hicks reached the fort, and the news of the murder soon 
spread over the country, but the usual delays occurred in 
getting up a scout to follow the marauders. Some declared 
their unwillingness to go unless there was a large force, as 
the depredators might only be some stragglers belonging to 
a large party; others, that their rifles were out of order; and 
others again pleaded sickness. In this way the day slipped 
around, and in the mean time the savages got far beyond 
their reach, even in case the scout could have been induced 
to follow them. 

Next morning, however, a party mustered courage and 
went over to the mill, where they found Hicks scalped on 
the spot where he fell, and his rifle gone. 

The inside of the house presented one of the saddest spec- 
tacles ever witnessed in the annals of savage atrocities. Two 
of the children were lying upon the floor crying, and the 
infant in the cradle, for the want of nourishment had appar- 
ently cried until its crying had subsided into the most pitiful 
meanings; while the little girl that had been scalped sat 
crouched in a corner, gibbering like an idiot, her face and 
head covered with dry clotted blood I 

Of course, considering the start the Indians had, it was 
deemed useless to follow them ; so they buried Hicks near 
the mill, and removed the family to the fort. 

It may seem a little singular, nevertheless it is true, that 
the child, in spite of its fractured skull and the loss of its 
scalp, actually recovered, and lived for a number of years 



256 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

after the outrage, although its wounds were never dressed 
by a physician. It was feeble-minded, however, owing to 
the fracture. 

As no other family resided near the mill, no person could 
be induced to take it after Hicks was murdered, and it stood 
idle for years. 

The murder of Hicks created the usual amount of alarm ^ 
but no depredations followed in the immediate neighbor- 
hood for some time after his death. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 2&f 



CHAPTER XXV. 

STONE VALLEY — m'cORMICK's FORT — MURDER OF MRS. HOUSTON AND 
JAMES m'cLEES — A DEALER IN GRAIN OF THE OLDEN TIME. 

(N consequence of the rumors so rife in 1778 of the 
country being filled with Indians, the people of Stone 
Valley, north of Huntingdon, determined to build a 
fort. While concerting the measures for its erection, a Mr.. 
McCormick stated that, inasmuch as the population of the 
valley was not very large, and the labor and expense attend-: 
ing the erection of a fortress very great, he would agree that 
his house should be put into repair, pierced for defence, and 
that the people should fort with him. This proposition was; 
eagerly accepted by the people, who went willingly to work ; 
and in a very short time his house was converted into Fort 
McCormick, into which nearly all the settlers of Stone Val-, 
ley fled at once. 

Among others who took up their residence there was an 
old lady named Houston, who had resided some seven miles 
up the valley. She was a very amiable old lady, though 
somewhat garrulous, for which some of the settlers were dis- 
posed to ridicule her. It appears she had a small patch of. 
flax out, which gave her more trouble than a hundred acres 
of wheat would occasion some men. She was constantly. 
lamenting the certain loss of her flax, until the very word 
flax got to be a byword. As the time for pulling the flax 
approached, the old woman importuned every man in the 
fort to accompany her to her house only for a day, but her 
appeals were all in vain ; some declared they would not go 
so far from the fort for a ten-acre field of flax, while an old , 
soldier intimated that he would be pretty sure to heflaxed if 
he went. In short, her request was treated as a jest. Never- 
theless, the old woman indulged some sort of a vague hope , 
17 



258 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

that somebody would help her out of her difficulty, and she 
continued talking about the flax. 

One morning, about the middle of August, a number of 
men were seated in front of the fort, when some one started 
the ever laughable theme of the old woman's flax -patch; 
and, while conversing with the usual levity upon the old 
woman's trials, a young man, named James McClees, joined 
the party. After listening to them some time, he got up and 
said — 

" Boys, it is bad enough to be too cowardly to help the 
old woman gather her flax; to ridicule her misfortune is a 
shame." 

'■If you think it is cowardly, why don't you go and help 
her pull it?" said one of the men, who was evidently piqued 
at what had been said. 

"That is just my intention," said he. " Mrs. Houston, get 
ready, and I'll go with you to pull your flax." 

The dream was at last to be realized, and the old woman's 
heart was overflowing with gratitude. In a few moments 
she was ready. McClees shouldered his rifle, and the two 
departed — alas! to return no more. 

■McClees was but eighteen years of age, but extremely 
well-proportioned, and his vocabulary knew no such word 
as fear. Sad fate, that his noble and generous impulses 
should have been the means of cutting him ofl" in the very 
flower of youth. 

Of the manner of his death there was no living wit- 
ness to speak ; but on and around his body, when found, 
there were unmistakable signs of such actions as are sup- 
posed to speak as plain as words. 

Both had promised to return to the fort in the evening, 
or the evening following at farthest. The first evening 
passed, and they came not ; the second evening, and still 
no sign of them. This created alarm, and the necessary 
arrangements were made to go in search of them. 

As soon as the ordinary duty of the morning was per- 
forpied, as many armed men as it was deemed safe to 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 269 

spare were sent up the Valley. When they arrived at 
Mrs. Houston's house they found all quiet, and no signs 
of either Mrs. Houston or Mr. McClees having been there. 
They then started up the hill-side, toward the flax-patch ; 
but before they reached it they found the dead body of 
Mrs. Houston. She had been killed apparently by cuts 
from a hatchet on the forehead, and her scalp was taken 
off. The flax was untouched, which rendered it probable 
that she was attacked and killed while on her way to the 
patch. 

A hundred yards farther on lay McClees, literally co- 
vered with blood, and stabbed and cut in every part of his 
body. As there were no bullet-wounds upon him, it was 
evident that the fight was a hand-to-hand encounter, and 
the struggle must have been a long, fearful, and bloody one. 
That McClees had sold his life dearly was also very ap- 
parent. His rifle was gone; but by his side lay his knife, 
bloody, and the point broken off. Near him lay a toma- 
hawk, also bloody, and the ground was clotted with blood 
for a circuit of twenty yards. In addition to these, eagle- 
feathers, beads, and shreds of buckskin, were found lying 
about where the struggle had taken place. 

The nature of this fearful fight could only be guessed 
at by these tokens; but the true state of it was revealed 
in a few years after; for within a mile of where the 
struggle took place, on the bench of the mountain, two 
hunters found the remains of three Indians covered with 
bark. The supposition was that McClees had been at- 
tacked by five of them, and killed two outright and 
mortally wounded a third before the}' despatched him. 

A hero such as this brave youth proved himself in that 
desperate encounter certainly deserved a better fate. 

In concluding our reminiscences of Stone Valley we 
cannot omit giving an anecdote, characteristic of the times, 
told us by an old friend. 

Far up Stone Creek lived an old gentleman named 
O'Burn. In 1777, being a thrifty farmer, he raised nearly 



260 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

a thousand bushels of wheat. The year following, times be- 
came very hard — wheat was high, and commanded a price 
which placed it almost beyond the reach of poor men. The 
fact that O'Burn had a large quantity of wheat attracted to 
his house numerous customers ; and the manner in which 
he dealt with them may be inferred from the following : — 

A man reputed to be rich rode up to his house, when Mr. 
O'Burn made his appearance in the doorway. 

" Mr. O'Burn, have you any wheat?" 

" Plenty of it. Have you the money to pay for it?" 

"Certainly." 

" A horse to carry it, and bags to put it in, I see." 

" Oh, yes ; every thing," said the stranger. 

" Well, then," replied O'Burn, you can go to Big Valley 
for your wheat ; mine is for people who have no money to 
pay, no bags to put it in, and no horses to carry it off!" 

We regret to say that the race of O'Burns became extinct 
some years ago. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 2G1 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

TUCKAHOE — MURDER OF JOHN GUILLIFORD. 

(N the Valley of Tuckahoe, stretching from Altoona to 
the mouth of the Bald Eagle, there were some depreda- 
tions committed, but never any of a very serious nature, 
except upon one occasion. The cause of this can be 
traced, in a great measure, to the fact that Thomas and 
Michael Coleman and Michael Wallack lived in the upper 
end of the valley. These men were so well known and so 
much feared by the Indians, that, although the Kittaning 
Path, leading to the Bald Eagle Valley, ran directly through 
Tuckahoe, they always avoided it, for fear of finding those 
old and experienced hunters ambuscaded along their route. 
Besides, Captain Logan, a friendly chief, lived for some years 
in what is known as Logan's Valley. He was also known 
and feared, and he was constantly on the watch to guard 
against the incursions of hostile savages. Add to this the 
fact that the valley was thinly populated, and the risk at- 
tending the hunting for scalps immeasurably great, small 
roving parties, on but two or three occasions, made their ap- 
pearance in Tuckahoe. 

In the fall of 1777, two savages took captive two children 
while at play, near a cabin located somewhere in the neigh- 
borhood of where Mr. Hutchinson now lives. Thomas Cole- 
man happened to be out hunting and saw them come up 
the path. Each one was carrying a child, but neither of 
them had fire-arms, so he felt quite at ease. From behind 
the tree where he stood, he might easily have shot one of the 
savages, but he would not run the risk for fear of hitting the 
child ; so, waiting until they had passed him, he jumped 
into the path, levelled his gun at them, and shouted "sur- 
render!" The affrighted savages dropped .the children and 
disappeared in the woods. 



262 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

On another occasion they entered the valley, stole three 
horses, and set fire to a stable. A number of pioneers 
tracked them through the old war-path to the top of the 
mountain ; which was quite as far as it was prudent to ven- 
ture, as that was considered the line dividing the white set- 
tlements from the Indian country. 

The only massacre in Tuckahoe ever committed by the 
savages took place in the summer of 1778. A man named 
John Guilliford cleared a small patch of land a short distance 
south of where Blair Furnace now stands, and erected his 
cabin near where John Trout's house is. In the spring of 
1778, he abandoned his ground and cabin after the first 
alarm of Indian depredations, and sought safety in Fetter's 
Fort. In the course of the summer, after the alarm had 
somewhat subsided, Guilliford went down to see how his 
crops were progressing. His body was found the same day 
by Coleman and Milligan. It was lying at the threshold of his 
cabin door; so that, in all probability, he was shot just as he 
was coming out of the house. Coleman and Milligan dug 
a grave near the hut, and buried him as he was, without a 
coffin. The most remarkable feature about this murder was 
that Guilliford was not scalped. When we remember that 
scalps were paid for at the British garrison at Detroit, the 
omission to scalp Guilliford appears almost inexplicable. 
Coleman and Milligan went in search of the Indians, but did 
not succeed in getting upon their trail. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 263 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

EARLY SETTLEMENT OF SCOTCH VALLEY — THE MOORE FAMILY— i- 
MASSACRE OF WILLIAM MOORE — INDIAN SHOT BY A BOY, ETC. " 

^JjUhE Moore family, whose name is identified with Scotch 
^J ; Valley as the original settlers, came to this countfy 
^T probably about the year 1768, from Scotland. It 
consisted of Samuel Moore, his seven sons and two 
daughters, — viz.: Daniel, William, John, Samuel, James, 
David, Joseph, Elizabeth, and Jane. Their first stoppings 
place in the interior was in Kishicoquillas Valley, where 
the hard^' Scots commenced clearing land ; but the yield not 
being such as they were led to expect, the two elder brothers, 
Daniel and William, were sent abroad by the old patriarch 
to look for better land and more of it. Accordingly, they 
shaped their course westward, prospecting as they went, until 
they reached what is now known as Scotch Valley. How 
they found their way to that place, an unbroken wilderness, 
five miles from the nearest human habitation, or what the 
inducements were for stopping there, were puzzling questions 
then. Let the reader now look at the fine farms of Scotch 
Valley, and he will see that, in selecting the spot, the Moores 
were actuated by a sagacity that enabled them to see those 
fine lands blooming like the rose in the future. They im- 
mediately occupied a large tract of land, built a cabin, and 
commenced clearing. The year following they went to 
Kishicoquillas, and brought on the father and the remainder 
of the family. 

Beneath their sturdy blows the giant oaks fell, and the 
wilderness was turned into fields of waiving grain, and they 
soon had a home that made them even forget the Highlands 
of Scotland. 

When the war broke out they were ah stanch republicaitts, 



264 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

active and energetic men, and were foremost in all measures 
of defence for the frontier. 

William Moore, second son of Samuel, a useful man, loved 
and respected by all who knew him, met his death at the 
hands of an Indian, in August, 1778. It appears that one 
morning two of their horses were missing, when William 
and a lad named George McCartney, about fourteen years of 
age, started in pursuit of them — as a matter of course not 
neglecting the caution of the day, to take their rifles with 
them. At that time two paths led to Fetter's Fort from 
Scotch Valley, — one by way of Frankstown, through Adam 
Holliday's farm, fording the river near where the plank-road 
bridge now crosses south of Hollidaysburg ; the other led 
through the flat, back of the Presbyterian graveyard, and 
north of Hollidaysburg. This was the most direct route ; 
but, in order to make a thorough research, they went by way 
of the river road, and reached Fetter's Fort without obtain- 
ing any tidings of the missing animals. After remaining at 
the fort a short time, they started on their way home by the back 
or direct road. No Indians having been seen in the country 
for. some time, they travelled on with a feeling of entire se- 
curity, and never for a moment entertained the remotest idea 
of coming in contact with savages. When they came to a 
pile of driftwood, — in what is now known as McCahen's 
Bottom, half a mile west of Hollidaysburg, — while Moore 
was in the act of trying to get over the drift, he was shot by 
an Indian from an ambuscade. The bullet entered his back, 
passed through the left ventricle of the heart, and he fell 
dead against the drift. 

McCartney, who was some distance off", on the impulse of 
the moment commenced running. In the mean time the 
Indian had come from his place of concealment, and, seeing 
him, drew his tomahawk and followed. McCartney soon 
finding that the savage was the fleetest, and must overtake 
hipi, cocked his gun while running, suddenly wheeled, and 
aimed at the Indian. This unexpected defence from a mere 
boy rather took the Indian by surprise, and he jumped be- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 265 

hind a tree, and McCartney did the same, still keeping the 
mm ready to shoot in case the Indian moved from the cover 
of the tree. While in this position, the Indian commenced 
loading his rifle, and, after ramming home the powder, he 
accidentally dropped his ramrod, which he stooped to pick 
up ; in doing which he exposed his posterior, which McCart- 
ney took advantage of, and fired. The Indian gave a scream 
of mingled rage and pain, dropped his rifle, and ran, picking 
up leaves on his way, which he endeavored to thrust into 
the bullet-hole to stanch the blood. 

Young McCartney, satisfied with the exploit, and thank- 
ful that his life had been spared, did not pursue the savage. 
His first impulse was to do so ; but fearing that the chase 
might lead him into an encampment of the enemy, since it 
invariably turned out that where there was one more were 
not far off, he returned with all despatch to Fetter's Fort. 
The men at the fort had heard both shots, but supposed that 
Moore and McCartney had started game of some kind ; con- 
sequently, they were unprepared for any news of the kind. 
Fortunately, there happened to be a very large force at Fet- 
ter's at the time, and, under the impression that there must 
be more Indians in the neighborhood, a strong, experienced 
force at once started out. 

When they arrived at the drift, they found the body of 
Moore, stark in death, leaning against it, with his rifle 
grasped in his uplifted hands, as if in the very act of trying 
to climb over. His body was removed to the fort by some 
of the men, while the remainder commenced searching for 
the Indian. By his blood they tracked him nearly a mile 
up the run, and even found a place where he had evidently 
stopped to the wash blood off; but at length they lost all 
traces of his trail. They continued their march, however, 
to Gap Run, in order to ascertain whether there was any 
fresh Indian trail. In their conjectures that there were 
other Indians near they were not mistaken. Half a mile 
west of where Hutchinson's Mill now stands, they found 
traces of a fresh encampment of a very large party, whose 



266 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

trail they followed several miles up the Kittaning War- 
Path ; but they soon abandoned all hope of overtaking them, 
and returned to the fort. 

The dead body of the Indian shot by McCartney was 
found, some time afterward, by a Mr. Hileman, up Kittan- 
ing Run, where he had secreted himself by the side of a log, 
under some bushes, and completely covered himself with 
brush and leaves previous to giving up the ghost, in order 
to prevent the whites from finding his body. The ruling 
passion was strong even in death ! 

His rifle, which was kept at Fetter's, as a trophy, was a 
brass-barrelled smooth-bore, with the British coat of arms 
stamped upon it, — conclusive evidence that the entire savage 
band had been armed and equipped by his Majesty's officers 
at Detroit, and were on a scalp-hunting expedition. 

During the troubles of 1779-80, when the frontier-men fled 
before the assaults and merciless massacres of the Indians, 
the Moores returned to their former residence in Kishico- 
quillas. But the restless Scots did not remain away from 
their farm long. Some of them returned in a year ; but the 
old patriarch, Samuel, did not return' until after the surren- 
render of Cornwallis. He was then accompanied by a colony 
of Scotchmen, consisting of the Crawford s, Irwins, Fraziers, 
Stewarts, and Macphersons, and others, constituting from 
twenty-five to thirty persons. 

The late Mr. Maguire, then quite a lad, was at Shaver's 
Creek when they passed on their way west. They were all 
in full Highland costume, with bonnet and kilt, armed with 
claymores and Queen Anne muskets. He had seen Indians 
before, but never any Highlanders, and, while listening to 
their Gaelic dialect, he wondered to himself what tribe they 
belonged to. 

These men settled in the upper end of the valley ; hence 
the name — "Scotch Valley." By their sinewy arms and 
sturdy blows the oaks of the forest fell, and by their unre- 
mitting toil to gain a home in the New World they encoun- 
tered and triumphed over the most formidable obstacles^ 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 267 

untilthe valley — its natural soil taken into consideration — 
became one of the finest of its size in the country. 

The Moore family were the first persons who conceived 
the idea of running arks down the river from Frankstown. 
This they accomplished successfully before the close of the 
last century, and afterward engaged in running flat-boats be- 
tween Frankstown and Middletown. 

Of the third generation of the Moore family but three re- 
main in this vicinity, — viz.: T. B. Moore, in Hollidaysburg; 
Jesse Moore, at the old homestead, in Scotch Valley; and 
Johnston Moore, in Ebensburg. Others, however, live in the 
West; and the fourth generation, whose number we are not 
able to compute, are scattered over the Union. 

The descendants of the men who wound their way up the 
Juniata, in Highland costume, nearly three-quarters of a 
century ago, with all their worldly possessions upon pack- 
horses, are also numerous; and many of them have risen to 
wealth and eminence by their own unaided exertions. 



268 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

WOODCOCK VALLEY — MASSACRE OF ELDER — THE BRECKENRIDGE 
FAMILY — FIGHT WITH, AND DESTRUCTION OF, CAPTAIN PHILLIP's 
SCOUT BY THE INDIANS — CRUEL MASSACRE OF TEN MEN. 



4. J. 



,OODCOCK VALLEY, located north of Huntingdon, 
is one of the oldest-settled valleys in the county. In 
the days of Indian depredations, it was a favorite 
haunt of the savage, whose great war-path from the West to 
the East went through a part of it. 

The first murder committed in it during the Revolutionary 
struggle occurred at Coffey Run, near the present residence 
of Mr. Entriken. The victim was a man named Elder, the 
husband of the woman mentioned in a preceding chapter 
as having been carried a captive to Detroit by the Indians. 
As there is no living witness who was present, the circum- 
stances connected with his massacre are merely traditionary. 
He was on his way home in company with Richard Shirley, 
when he was shot and scalped ; in which condition he was 
found by a scouting party a day or two after the occurrence. 
This was in 1778, and the same year a number of captives 
were taken from the valley ; but the accounts are so vague 
that we can give no reliable data. 

The Breckenridge family lived about three miles south- 
east of McConnelstown, on the road which now leads from 
Huntingdon to Bedford, on the farm at present occupied by 
Ludwig Hoover. The family consisted of the father, mother, 
two sons, — John and James, aged respectively eighteen and 
sixteen years, — a girl aged fourteen, another aged three years, 
and an infant at the breast. They had, during the alarms 
of massacres, forted at Hartsock's Fort, which was almost in 
sight of their farm ; but in the spring of 1779, the alarm hav- 
ing in a great measure subsided, they, as well as the rest of 
the settlers, went home, and the fort was abandoned, under 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 269 

the full impression that they would have no further use for 
it, — that Indian depredations were ended. In this they were 
most signally mistaken. 

In July — probably about the middle of the month, — one 
morning, directly after breakfast, the sons, John and Thomas, 
started in search of a horse that had broken from his en- 
closure the night previous. After they had gone, the old 
lady occupied herself in her household duties, while the old- 
est daughter repaired to the spring-house in the meadow, — a 
distance of probably five hundred yards from the house, — 
for the purpose of churning. While engaged in this occu- 
pation, she was suddenly confronted by five Indians. Pro- 
bably overcome by fright, she made no effort to escape, but 
screamed at the top of her voice. The father without suspect- 
ing the real cause of the difficulty, started, unarmed, in the 
direction of the spring-house, and when within twenty yards 
of it a bullet from one of the Indian rifles struck him and he 
fell dead in the path. Mrs. Breckenridge was looking out of 
the window at the time, and , fearing that their next move would 
be in the direction of the house, she snatched the infant out 
of the cradle, and, taking in her arms the other child, es- 
caped. Instinctively she took the path toward Standing 
Stone, — a direction in which the Indians were not likely to 
follow. She pursued the path along Crooked Run for a few 
miles, and then sank exhausted upon the ground. As soon 
as she rallied, she endeavored to continue her way to the 
Stone; but to her dismay she found that she had wandered 
from the path and was lost. In this condition, she wandered 
about the woods with her children the whole day and the 
entire night. Next day, the oldest child complained bitterly 
of hunger, when the mother fortunately came to a rye-field. 
The rye was just beginning to head, in spots, and she gath- 
ered a number of heads, rubbed out the kernels, and gave 
them to the child. As the operation was a tedious one, in 
consequence of the scarcity of the grain, she took off" her 
under-garment, wrapped up the infant and laid it down, and 
went to work to procure sufficient to appease the appetite of 



270 HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

the child, and while so engaged she unconsciously wandered 
a considerable distance from the infant. 

John and Thomas returned to the house with the horses 
late in the afternoon ; and, seeing their father and sister mur- 
dered, believed that the mother, with the other children, had 
either met the same fate or been carried into captivity. They 
lost no time in making their way to Standing Stone Fort, 
where they communicated the sad intelligence. By that 
time it was nearly dark, and entirely too late to make any 
further effort ; but at the dawn of day, next morning, a posse 
of men went to Breckenridge's house, where the murdered 
father and daughter lay, and, while part of the people em- 
ployed themselves in removing the bodies preparatory to 
burial, another party scoured the country in search of the 
mother, being encouraged to do so by seeing her tracks lead- 
ing toward Crooked Run. Late in the afternoon they found 
her, at the edge of the rye-field, leading her child ; but the 
anguish she had endured had in a measure unsettled her 
her mind and she was unable to tell where she had left the 
infant. It was deemed advisable to remove her to the fort- 
By next day, she had so far recovered as to be able to state 
that she left the infant in the field ; whereupon a party set 
out, and returned with it in the evening. 

The infant had apparently not suffered a great deal, except 
from the annoyance of flies. Its entire face was fly-blown; and 
yet, strange to say, she recovered, grew to be a strong, healthy 
woman, got married, and was the mother of Isaac B. Meek, 
Esq., formerly a member of the legislature from Centre 
count}^ and, we are told, died but a few years ago. 

John Breckenridge became a distinguished Presbyterian 
preacher. Mr. Maguire was under the impression that he 
located among his relatives in Kentucky; but Dr. Junkin, 
of Hollidaysburg, whose knowledge of church history can- 
not be questioned, informs us that he officiated for many 
years in the first Presbyterian church ever built in Wash- 
ington City. 

Woodcock Valley was the scene of the massacre of Captain 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 271 

Phillips's scout, — one of the most cruel and cold-blooded 
murders on record, — a massacre which hurried into eternity 
ten as brave men as ever ranged the woods of the Juniata 
Valley. 

The following is Colonel Piper's official report of the mas- 
sacre, made to President Reed. It contains no particulars, 
and is also inaccurate ; nevertheless, we deem it worthy of 
a place, as it bears an official stamp. We copy it from the 
Archives of 1780: — 

Bedford County, August 6, 1780. 

Sir: — Your favor of the third of June, with the blank com- 
missions, have been duly received ; since which we have been 
anxiously employed in raising our quota of Pennsylvania volun- 
teers, and at the same time defending our frontiers. But, in our 
present shattered situation, a full company cannot be expected 
from this county, when a number of our militia companies are 
entirely broken up and whole townships laid waste, so that the 
communication betwixt our upper and lower districts is entirely 
broken, and our apprehensions of immediate danger are not less- 
ened, but greatly aggravated by a most alarming stroke. Captain 
Phillips, an experienced, good woodman, had engaged a company 
of rangers for the space of two months, for the defence of our 
frontiers, was surprised at his fort on Sunday, the 16th of July, 
when the captain with eleven of his company were all taken and 
killed. When I received the intelligence, which was the day 
following, I marched, with only ten men, directly to the place, 
where we found the house burnt to ashes, with sundry Indian 
tomahawks that had been lost in the action, but found no person 
killed at that place ; but, upon taking the Indian tracks, within 
about one half-mile we found ten of Captain Phillips's com- 
pany, with their hands tied, and murdered in the most cruel 
manner. 

This bold enterprise so alarmed the inhabitants that our whole 
frontiers were upon the point of giving way ; but, upon applica- 
tion to the Lieutenant of Cumberland county, he hath sent to 
our assistance one company of the Pennsylvania volunteers, 
which, with the volunteers raised in our own county, hath so 
encouraged the inhabitants that they seem determined to stand 



272 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

it a little longer. We hope our conduct will receive your ap- 
probation; and you'll please to approve it by sending your spe- 
cial order to our county commissioner to furnish these men 
with provisions and other necessaries until such times as other 
provisions can be made for our defence. As Colonel Smith will 
deliver this, I beg leave to recommend you to him, as he is very 
capable to give full satisfaction to you, in every particular, of 
our present circumstances. 

I have the honor to be, 

With all due respect, 

Your Excellency's most ob't 

And very humble servant, 
John Piper. 

Overlooking the fact that Colonel Piper, in this semi-offi- 
cial statement, did not even condescend to mention the name 
of a single one of the brave men who fell by the hands of 
the ruthless savages, is it not a little strange that the whole 
report should be filled with gross inaccuracies, not the least 
of which is that Captain Phillips was killed, when it is no- 
torious that he returned after the war — having been taken 
prisoner, — and people are still living in the valley who saw 
him many years after the massacre of his scout ? 

Captain Phillips, previous to the disaster, resided near 
what is now Williamsburg. He was a man of some energy, 
and a skillful and experienced woodman. He had made a 
temporary fortress of his house, to guard against savage in- 
cursions, and his usefulness in protecting the frontier was 
duly appreciated by the settlers. Through the influence of 
some of the most prominent men about Clover Creek, Col- 
onel Piper was induced to give Mr. Phillips a captain's com- 
mission, with authority to raise a company of rangers to 
serve for two months, as it was known that there was a 
large body of savages somewhere in the valley, unmistakable 
traces of their presence having been seen at many places 
along the river. 

Captain Phillips commenced recruiting men immediately 
on the reception of his commission ; but, owing to the fact 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 278 

that it was just the beginning of harvest, he met with very- 
little success. By the 15th of July, 1780, he had but ten 
men collected ; but with these he determined to scout through 
Woodcock Valley and the Cove, in order to protect the farm- 
ers in harvesting their grain. To this end he distributed 
ammunition and provisions, and the party marched from 
the Cove across the mountain. On entering the valley, they 
found most of the houses abandoned, but no signs of Indians. 
Late on Saturday evening they arrived at the house of one 
Frederick Heater, which had been abandoned by its owner. 
The house had been pierced with loopholes, to serve as a 
temporary fortress in case of necessity, but the proprietor, 
unable to find sufficient men to garrison it, had fled to Hart- 
sock's Fort. At this house Captain Phillips determined to 
remain over Sunday. The entire force consisted of Captain 
Phillips, his son Elijah, aged fourteen years, Philip Skelly, 
Hugh Skelly, P. and T. Sanders, Richard Shirley, M. Davis, 
Thomas Gaitrell, Daniel Kelly, and two men whose names 
are no longer remembered. After partaking of their supper 
they all stretched themselves out on the floor and slept 
soundly until morning. While preparing their morning 
meal, one of the Skellys happened to open the door, when 
he discovered that the house was surrounded by Indians. A 
glance sufficed to show Captain Phillips how matters stood. 
There were not less than sixty Indians, and among them two 
white men, dressed, decorated, and painted, the same as the 
savages. The captain at first supposed they were marauders, 
and would probably not stop ; but the hope was most delu- 
sive. A small shower of rain having fallen the day previous, 
this savage war-party had tracked Phillips and his men to 
the very door of Heater's house. Phillips commanded the 
utmost silence, and awaited with breathless anxiety the fur- 
ther movements of the enemy. Through the window he 
discovered the savages grouped upon an eminence — some 
ten of them armed with rifles, and the remainder with bows 
and arrows — in consultation. Directly one of the savages 
fired his rifle, which was evidently a ruse to draw the men 
18 



274 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

from the house; but it did not succeed. At last one of the 
Indians ventured within rifle-range of the house, when Gait- 
rell, unable to resist the temptation, thrust the muzzle of 
his rifle through one of the loopholes, fired, and shot him 
through the left shoulder. The war-whoop was then raised, 
and the savages ran to and fro for a while, concealing them- 
selves behind trees, some seventy yards from the house, un- 
der the impression probably that an immediate action would 
take place. 

No further demonstrations being made by the rangers, the 
Indians waited but a short time until, at a preconcerted sig- 
nal, they fired a volley at the door and window of the house, 
both of which were riddled by the bullets, but no person 
was injured. The scout, in this agony of suspense, sur- 
rounded by a large bod}^ of savages, with the greatest bravery 
stood at the loopholes, and whenever a savage showed him- 
self within rifle-range he was shot at. In this manner two 
were killed and two wounded. The Indians, in the mean 
time, continued firing at the door and window ; and in this 
way the fight continued until about the middle of the after- 
noon, when Philip Skelly shot the chief through the left 
cheek at a distance of nearly a hundred yards. This so ex- 
asperated the Indians that they raised the war-whoop a 
second time, loud and fierce, and appeared determined to 
have vengeance. 

At this juncture an occurrence took place which seems al- 
most incredible; yet Captain Phillips, whose statement we 
are giving, vouched for the truth of it, and he was unques- 
tionably a man of veracity. Davis had the muzzle of his 
rifle out of a loop-hole, and was intently watching for a 
chance to shoot, when he felt a sudden jarring of the rifle. 
He withdrew it, and found a sharp-pointed, tapering hickory 
arrow driven into the muzzle so tight that it took the com- 
bined efforts of four men to withdraw it. Whether this new 
method of spiking a gun was intentional or not, it illustrated 
most forcibly the wonderful power of the Indian over the 
bow — whether he fired at the rifle or the loop-hole. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 275 

The Indians, finding it impossible to dislodge the rangers 
from what appeared a stronghold in every sense of the word, 
by all stratagems yet used, affixed dry leaves and other com- 
bustible matter to arrows, set fire to them, and lodged them 
upon the roof of the house, which soon was on fire in two or 
three places. The men carried up all the water in the house, 
and subdued the flames from the inside; but the water was 
soon exhausted, and a fresh volley of the fire-arrows set the 
roof in a blaze, and there were no longer means within their 
reach to quench the destructive element. Still the rangers 
stood at the loop-holes, even when the upper part of the 
house was all on fire. Certain death stared them in the 
face; they dared not go out of the house, for they would ex- 
pose the weakness of their force and meet instant destruction 
as soon as they passed over the threshold ; on the other hand, 
the fire above them was raging, and they did not know what 
moment they would be buried beneath the burning timbers. 
And yet the men never flinched. But, at last. Captain 
Phillips, seeing the desperate strait to which they were re- 
duced, cried for quarters, and told the savages that he would 
surrender, on condition that his men should be treated as 
prisoners and not injured. To this the Indians assented, 
and the men escaped from the house just in time to save 
their lives from fire, but only to meet a death equally shock- 
ing. 

The spokesman for the Indians — one of the white rene- 
gades — demanded, in the first place, that all their arms should 
be delivered up. To this the men readily agreed ; and they 
handed their rifles and knives to the savages. The next de- 
mand was that they should suffer themselves to be pinioned, 
in order that none might escape. This degrading proposi- 
tion met no favor with the men ; but they were compelled to 
submit, and their hands were secured behind their backs by 
strong thongs. In this condition they started — as the In- 
dians said — for Kittaning ; but, after getting half a mile from 
the house, some five or six of the Indians, who had Captain 
Phillips and his son in charge, continued on their route, 



276 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

while the remainder ordered a halt. The ten men were then 
tied to as many saplings, and two or three volleys of arrows 
were fired into them. 

The fate of the scout was not known until Tuesday. Some 
persons passing Heater's house on Monday morning, seeing 
it in ruins, carried the news to Hartsock's Fort. An express 
was sent to Colonel Piper, who arrived on the ground with 
a small force late on Tuesday. About the house they found 
a number of tomahawks, knives, and other articles, which in- 
dicated that an action had taken place ; but the fate of the 
men could not be conjectured. 

Finally, some one discovered the tracks, and proposed fol- 
lowing them, which they did, and found the men at the place 
designated, each man with from three to five arrows sticking 
in him. Some of them had not been killed outright, and it 
was apparent that their struggles to get loose must have been 
most desperate. Kelly was one of these, who, in his efforts 
to free himself, had buried the thong in the flesh of his arm. 
All of the men were scalped. They were buried on the spot 
where they appeased the savage appetite for blood ; and their 
mouldering bones still repose there, without even the rudest 
of stones to commemorate the sad event or perpetuate their 
memory. 

Phillips, in consequence of his rank, was taken prisoner, 
as at that time officers brought to the British garrison com- 
manded an excellent price. Himself and son were taken to 
Detroit, and from thence to Montreal, and did not reach 
their home until peace was declared. 

Some of the friends of the persons massacred were disposed 
to find fault with Captain Phillips, especially as the massacre 
was so general and yet he and his son had escaped. Of 
course, Phillips not being present to defend himself, the talk 
was so much on one side that some went so far as to stigma- 
tize him as a traitor and a coward. On his return, he gave 
the true version of the affair ; and it must be admitted by all 
that, under the circumstances, he did all that a brave 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 277 

officer could do to save the lives of his men. Their fate 
weighed heavily on his mind for the balance of his life ; and 
in the thought of their untimely end he forgot all the suffer- 
ings and privations he endured while a prisoner in the camp 
of the enemy. 



278 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

WATER STREET — THE BEATTY FAMILY — CAPTAIN SIMONTON — MASSA- 
CRE OF THE DEAN FAMILY — CAPTIVITY OF JOHN SIMONTON, ETC. 



M 



fATER STREET is an old place, and was settled prior 
to the Revolution. A stream of water from the 

7*^^ Canoe Mountain, supposed to be the Arch Spring of 
Sinking Valley, passes down a ravine and empties into the 
Juniata at this place. For some distance through a narrow 
defile, the road passed directly through the bed of this 
stream, — a circumstance which induced the settlers to call it 
Water Street when the original settlement was made. 

This for a long time was an important point, being the 
canoe-landing for the interior country. Hence the name of 
Canoe Valley, applied to the country now known as Catha- 
rine township, in Blair county. At this place was General 
Roberdeau's landing, where he received his stores for the 
lead mines, and where he shipped the lead-ore to be taken 
to Middletown for smelting. 

The number of persons living about Water Street and in 
the lower end of Canoe Valley, during the Revolution, was 
fully as great as at the present day. 

Among the first settlers was Patrick Beatty. He was the 
father of seven sons, regular flowers of the forest, who never 
would fort during all the troubles, and who cared no more 
for an Indian than they did for a bear. They lived in a 
cabin about a mile west of Water Street. 

It is related of John, the oldest son, that, coming through 
the woods one day, near his home, he met two Indians in • 
his path. They both aimed at him, but by successful dodg- 
ing he prevented them from shooting, and reached the 
house. He found one of his brothers at home ; and the two, 
seizing their rifles, started out after the Indians, and followed 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 279 

them sixty miles, frequently getting sight of them, but never 
within shooting distance. The Indians knew the Beattys, 
and feared them, for a more daring and reckless party of 
young fellows never existed in the valley. 

It is a remarkable coincidence that of the Beattys there 
were seven brothers, seven brothers of the Cryders, seven of 
the Ricketts, seven of the Rollers, and seven of the Moores, — 
constituting the most formidable force of active and daring 
frontier-men to be found between Standing Stone and the 
base of the mountain. 

In the winter of 1778 or the spring of 1779, Lowry's Fort 
was erected, about two and a half or three miles west of 
Water Street, for the protection of the settlers of Water Street 
and Canoe Valley. Although built upon Lowry's farm, 
Captain Simonton was by unanimous consent elected the 
commander. Thus, during the year 1779 and the greater 
part of 1780, the people divided their time between the fort 
and their farms, without any molestation from the savages. 
Occasionally an alarm of Indian depredations sent the entire 
neighborhood to the fort in great haste ; but just as soon as 
the alarm had subsided they all went to their farms again. 

Some few of the neighbors, for some reason or other, 
would not fort at Lowry's; whether because they appre- 
hended no danger, or because the}'^ felt quite as secure at 
home, we have no means of knowing. Among these was 
Matthew Dean, Esq., one of the most influential men in 
Canoe Valley, who lived but half a mile from the fort. His 
reason for not forting there, however, arose from an old per- 
sonal animosity existing between himself and Lowry, and 
not from any fancied security at his own house, for he had 
several times, during the alarms of 1779, made preparations 
to remove his family to Huntingdon. 

In the fall of 1780, on a Sunday evening, Captain Simon- 
ton and his wife, and his son John, a lad eight years of age, 
paid a visit to Dean's house. They spent the evening in 
conversation on the ordinary topics of the day, in the course 
of which Captain Simontoii told Dean that he had heard of 



280 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Indians having been seen in Sinking Valley, and that if any- 
thing more of them was heard it would be advisable for 
them to fort. Dean gave it as his opinion that the rumor 
was false, and that there was no cause for alarm, much less 
forting. 

The family of Mr. Dean consisted of himself, his wife, and 
eight children, with the prospect of another being added to 
the family in a day or two. The last words Mrs. Dean spoke 
to Mrs. Simonton were to have her shoes ready, as she might 
send for her before morning. When the Simontons were 
ready to start, the lad John was reluctant to go; and at the 
request of Mrs. Dean he was allowed to stay with their chil- 
dren until morning, at which time Mrs. Simonton promised 
to visit her neighbor. 

In the morning, as soon as breakfast was over. Dean, with 
his two boys and two oldest girls, went to a corn-field for the 
purpose of breaking it up preparatory to sowing rye in it. 
The boys managed the plough, while the girls made what 
was called " steps," or holes between the corn-hills, where the 
plough could not be brought to bear. Mr. Dean had taken 
his rifle with him, and, after directing the work for a while, 
he saw large numbers of wild pigeons flying in the woods 
adjoining the field, and he went to shoot some of them. He 
had been in the woods but a short time when he happened 
to look in the direction of his house, and saw smoke issuing 
from it, when he immediately went to his children and in- 
formed them of it. By that time the volume of smoke had 
so increased that they were satisfied the house was on fire, 
and they all started for home at their utmost speed. 

In the mean time Mrs. Simonton, according to promise, 
came over to Dean's house. She, too, saw the smoke some 
distance off, and by the time she reached the gate, which 
was simultaneously with the arrival of the family from the 
corn-field, the house was in a sheet of flame. Up to this 
time no one had supposed that the fire was the work of In- 
dians. Mrs. Simonton saw a little girl, about eight years of 
age, lying upon the steps, scalped ; but she did not notice its 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 281 

being scalped, — merely supposing that the child had a red 
handkerchief tied around its head, and had fallen asleep 
where it lay. But when she went into the gate to get the 
child out, and the blood gushed up between the boards on 
which she trod, the fearful reality burst upon her mind; 
then she thought about her own little son, and for a while 
was almost frantic. 

News of the disaster was conveyed to the fort, and in a 
few hours the entire neighborhood was alarmed. A strong 
force, headed by the Beattys, started in pursuit, and got upon 
the track of the savages, but could not find them. They 
even waylaid the gap through which the war-path ran ; but 
all to no purpose, for they got clear of the settlements by 
some other route. 

Captain Simon ton, at the time of the outrage, was at Minor's 
Mill, getting a grist ground. On his return, he heard the 
news at Water Street, when he threw the bag of flour 
from the horse, and rode as fast as the animal could carry 
him to the scene of the disaster, where he arrived in a state 
of mind bordering closely upon madness — for he passionately 
loved his little boy — just as the neighbors were taking the 
roasted and charred remains of Mrs. Dean and her three 
children out of the ashes. One of the neighbors so engaged 
was a daughter of Mr. Beatty, now Mrs. Adams, still living 
in Gaysport, at a very advanced age, who gave us a graphic 
account of the occurrence. 

The remains taken out were joined together, and the skel- 
etons of Mrs. Dean and her three children could be recog- 
nised ; but no bones were found to conform to the size of 
Simonton's son. The Dean girls then recollected that, when 
last seen, he was playing near the front door with the little 
girl. It was then suggested that he might be killed, and 
that his body was perhaps lying somewhere near the house ; 
but a most thorough search revealed nothing of the kind, 
and it was only too evident that the Indians had carried the 
child into captivity. 

The murder of the Deans was the cause of universal regret, 



282 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

for they were known and respected by every person in the- 
upper end of the Juniata Valley, and it did not fail to spread 
consternation into every settlement, even where people 
thought themselves beyond the reach of the merciless and 
bloodthirsty savages. 

The reason why Simonton's child was carried into cap- 
tivity, instead of being murdered and scalped, was believed 
to be because the Indians knew the child and expected that 
Simonton would follow them and pay liberally for his 
ransom. 

The remains of the Deans were buried, and the family 
bore up as well as they could under the sad infliction ; but 
it was some years before Matthew Dean fairly recovered from^ 
the blow. 

The descendants of the Dean family are numerous — a 
majority of them living in the neighborhood of Williams- 
burg, Blair county. One of the young girls in the corn-field 
at the time of the massacre married a Mr. Caldwell, and was 
the mother of David Caldwell, at present one of the associate 
judges of Blair county. 

Captain Simonton never became reconciled to the loss of 
his son. He made all the inquiries he could; wrote to gov- 
ernment, and even went from his home as far as to Chilli- 
cothe, Ohio, to attend a treaty; but all to no purpose: he' 
could obtain no tidings of him. While there, he caused 
proclamation to be made to the Indians, offering a reward of 
£10 for any information as to his whereabouts, or £100 for 
his recovery. This was a munificent sum for the ransom of 
a mere boy, considering the financial condition of the coun- 
try; and the Indians promised to find him, if possible. 

A year after his return home, the final treaty for the de- 
livery of prisoners was held in the Miami Valley. Again 
Captain Simonton undertook the journey — then a more for- 
midable undertaking than traversing half the Union would 
be now. 

But he was again doomed to bitter disappointment. The 
children were brought forward, but none bore the slightest 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 283 

resemblance to his lost boy. So the captain returned to his 
home, bereft of all hope. The last feeble prop was gone, and 
Simonton was as near being a broken-hearted man as any 
one could well be without giving way entirely to despair. 

When the late war with Great Britain broke out, Hunting- 
don county, notwithstanding it had more than its proportion 
of tories in the time of the Revolution, furnished three com- 
panies to go to the Canadian frontier. In Captain Moses 
Canan's company were two, probably three, of Captain 
Simonton's sons. They knew they had a brother abducted 
by the Indians, but it never occurred to either of them that 
they should ever see him. 

The companies of Captains Allison, Canan, and Vande- 
vender, encamped in Cattaraugus, New York, — a country 
then occupied by the Seneca Indians. 

These Indians were neutral at that time, although they 
favored the American cause and readily furnished supplies 
to the soldiers. Among them was a white man, who ap- 
peared to hold a very prominent position. He owned lands, 
cattle, horses, lived in a well-constructed house, and was 
married to a squaw, by whom he had several children. This 
was the long-lost John Simonton. After Captain Canan's 
company had left, two men belonging to Vandevender's 
company, originally from Water Street, commenced talking 
about this white man among the Indians ; and both of them 
agreed that he bore a most striking resemblance to the Simon- 
ton boys. 

Next day, happening to meet him in front of his own house» 
one of them accosted him with the somewhat abrupt ques- 
tion of "What is your name?" 

He answered, in broken English, " John Sims." 

"Are you from the Juniata?" continued the man. 

" I think I am," was Simonton's reply. 

"Do you remember anything of the country?" 

" I remember my father, who used to have two big fires, 
and large barrels, in which he stirred with a long pole." 

This answer satisfied them. Old Captain Simonton had a 



284 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

small distillery, and the man remembered the process of dis- 
tilling very correctly. 

" Wouldn't you like to go to your old house and see your 
relatives?" inquired one of the men. 

He answered that he should like very much to do so, but 
that he was so much of an Indian that he doubted whether 
his presence would afford much satisfaction to his friends. 

On being told that some of his brothers were in one of the 
companies, he was so much affected that he shed tears, and 
expressed great anxiety to see them. He evidently felt him- 
self degraded, and saw between himself and his brothers an 
insurmountable barrier, built up by upwards of thirty years 
of life among the savages ; and yet he longed to see them. 

While talking to the men, his wife took him away, and he 
was not seen again by them while they remained there. His 
wife had a powerful influence over him, and she used it to 
the best advantage; for she really began to suspect that the 
men had traced his origin. 

Poor old Captain Simonton ! — he never lived to learn the 
fate of the boy he so much doated upon. 

One of the sons of Captain Simonton — a very old man — 
still lives several miles west of Hollidaysburg. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 287 



CHAPTER XXX. 

HOLLIDAYSBURG — THE HOLLIDAY FAMILY — DEATH OF LIEUTENANT 
HOLLIDAY AT THE BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE — MASSACRE OF A 
PORTION OF WILLIAM HOLLIDAY's FAMILY — JOHN HOLLIDAY, ETC. 

4> 4- 



w 



[ILLIAM and Adam Holliday, cousins, emigrated from 
the North of Ireland about 1750, and settled in the 
neighborhood of Manor, in Lancaster county. The 
feuds which existed between the Irish and German emi- 
grants, as well as the unceasing efforts of the proprietary 
agents to keep emigrants from settling upon their lands, in- 
duced the Hollidays to seek a location farther west. Cono- 
■cocheague suggested itself to them as a suitable place, because 
it was so far removed from Philadelphia that the proprietors 
could not well dispossess them ; and, the line never having 
been established, it was altogether uncertain whether the set- 
tlement was in Pennsylvania or Maryland. Besides, it pos- 
sessed the advantages of being tolerably well populated. 
Accordingly, they settled on the banks of the Conococheaguo, 
and commenced clearing land, which they purchased and 
paid for soon after the survey. During both the French and 
Indian wars of 1755-56 and the war of 1762-63 the Hollidays 
were in active service. At the destruction of Kittaning, Wil- 
liam Hollida}^ was a lieutenant in Colonel Armstrong's com- 
pany, and fought with great bravery in that conflict with the 
savages. The Hollidays were emphatically frontier-men; 
and on the restoration of peace in 1768, probably under the 
impression that the Conococheague Valley was becoming too 
thickly populated, they disposed of their land, placed their 
families and effects upon pack-horses, and again turned their 
faces toward the west. They passed through Aughwick, but 
found no unappropriated lands there worthy of their atten- 
tion. From thence they proceeded to the Standing Stone, 
but nothing offered there ; nor even at Frankstown could 



288 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

they find any inducement to stop ; so they concluded to 
cross the mountain by the Kittaning Path and settle on the 
Alleghany at or near Kittaning. William knew the road^ 
and had noticed fine lands in that direction. 

However, when they reached the place where Hollidays- 
burg now stands, and were just on the point of descending 
the hill toward the river, Adam halted, and declared his in- 
tention to pitch his tent and travel no farther. He argued 
with his cousin that the Indian titles west of the mountains 
were not extinguished ; and if they bought from the Indians, 
they would be forced, on the extinguishment of their titles^ 
to purchase a second time, or lose their lands and live in 
constant dread of the savages. Although William had a 
covetous eye on the fine lands of the Alleghany, the wise 
counsel of Adam prevailed, and they dismounted and pre- 
pared to build a temporary shelter. When Adam drove the 
first stake into the ground he casually remarked to William, 
" Whoever is alive a hundred years after this will see a tol- 
erable-sized town here, and this will be near about the mid- 
dle of it." This prediction has been verified to the letter 
long before the expiration of the allotted time. 

In a day or two after a shelter had been erected for the 
families, William crossed the river to where Gaysport now 
stands, for the purpose of locating. The land, however, was 
too swampy, and he returned. Next day he crossed again, 
and found a ravine, south of where he had been prospecting, 
which appeared to possess the desired qualifications; and 
there he staked out a farm, — the one now owned by Mr. J, 
R. Crawford. Through this farm the old Frankstown and 
Johnstown Road ran for many years, — the third road con- 
structed in Pennsylvania crossing the Alleghany Mountains. 

These lands belonged to the new purchase, and were in 
the market at a very low price, in order to encourage settlers 
on the frontier. Accordingly, Adam Holliday took out a 
warrant for 1000 acres, comprising all the land upon which 
Hollidaysburg now stands. The lower or southern part was 
too marshy to work ; so Mr. Holliday erected his cabin near 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 289 

where the American House now stands, and made a clearing 
on the high ground stretching toward the east. 

In the mean time, William Holliday purchased of Mr. 
Peters 1000 acres of land, which embraced the present Craw- 
ford and Jackson farms and a greater part of Gaysport. 
Some years after, finding that he had more land than he 
could conveniently cultivate, he disposed of nearly one-half 
of his original purchase to his son-in-law, James Somerville. 

Adam Holliday, too, having a large lot of land, disposed 
of a portion of it to Lazarus Lowry. Thus matters pro- 
gressed smoothly for a time, until, unfortunately, a Scotch- 
man, named Henry Gordon, in search of lands, happened to 
see and admire his farm. Gordon was a keen, shrewd fel- 
low, and in looking over the records of the land- office he 
discovered a flaw or informality in Adam's grant. He im- 
mediately took advantage of his discovery, and took out a 
patent for the land. Litigation followed, as a matter of 
course. Gordon possessed considerable legal acumen, and 
had withal money and a determined spirit. The case was 
tried in the courts below and the courts above, — decided 
sometimes in favor of one party and sometimes in favor of 
the other, but eventually resulted in Gordon wresting from 
Adam Holliday and Lazarus Lowry all their land. This 
unfortunate circumstance deeply afflicted Mr. Holliday, for 
he had undoubtedly been grossly wronged by the adroitness 
and cunning of Gordon; but relief came to him when he 
least expected it. When the war broke out, Gordon was among 
the very first to sail for Europe ; and soon after the Council 
proclaimed him an attainted traitor, and his property was 
confiscated and brought under the hammer. The circum- 
stances under which he had wrested the property from Holli- 
day were known, so that no person would bid, which enabled 
him to regain his land at a mere nominal price. He then 
went on and improved, and built a house on the bank of 
the river, near where the bridge connects the boroughs of 
Hollidaysburg and Gaysport. The very locust-trees that he 

19 



290 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 

plante(^ seventy-eight years ago, in front of his door, are still 
standing. 

During the alarms and troubles which followed in the 
course of the war, Adam Holliday took a conspicuous part 
in defending the frontier. He aided, first, in erecting 
Fetter's Fort, and afterwards expended his means in turning 
Titus's stable into a fort. This fort was located on the flat, 
nearly opposite the second lock below Hollidaysburg, and 
the two served as a place of refuge for all the settlers of 
what was then merely called the Upper End of Frankstown 
District. He also, with his own money, purchased provisions, 
and through his exertions arms and ammunition were 
brought from the eastern counties. His courage and energy 
inspired the settlers to make a stand at a time when they 
were on the very point of flying to Cumberland county. In 
December, 1777, Mr. Holliday visited Philadelphia for the 
purpose of securing a part of the funds appropriated to 
the defence of the frontier. The following letter to Presi- 
dent Wharton was given to him by Colonel John Piper, of 
Bedford county : — 

Bedford County, December 19, 1777. 

Sir : — Permit me, sir, to recommend to you, for counsel and 
direction, the bearer, Mr. Holliday, an inhabitant of Frankstown, 
one of the frontier settlements of our county, who has, at his 
own risk, been extremely active in assembling the people of that 
settlement together and in purchasing provisions to serve the 
militia who came to their assistance. As there was no person 
appointed either to purchase provisions or to serve them out, 
necessity obliged the bearer, with the assistance of some neigh- 
bors, to purchase a considerable quantity of provisions for that 
purpose, by which the inhabitants have been enabled to make 
a stand. His request is that he may be supplied with cash not 
only to discharge the debts already contracted, but likewise to 
enable him to lay up a store for future demand. I beg leave, 
sir, to refer to the bearer for further information, in hopes you 
will provide for their further support. Their situation requires 
immediate assistance. 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 291 

I am, sir, with all due respect, your Excellency's most obe- 
dient humble servant, 

John Piper. 

Mr. Holliday's mission was successful; and he returned 
with means to recruit the fort with provisions and ammuni- 
tion, and continued to be an active and energetic frontier- 
man during all the Indian troubles which followed. 

Notwithstanding the distracted state of society during the 
Revolution, William Holliday devoted much time and at- 
tention to his farm. His family, consisting of his wife, his 
sons John, William, Patrick, Adam, and a lunatic whose 
name is not recollected, and his daughter Janet, were forted 
at Holliday's Fort; and it was only when absolute necessity 
demanded it that they ventured to the farm to attend to the 
crops, after the savage marauders so boldly entered the set- 
tlements. 

James, who we believe was next to the eldest of William 
Holliday's children, joined the Continental army soon after 
the war broke out. He is represented as having been a 
noble-looking fellow, filled with enthusiasm, who sought for, 
and obtained without much difficulty, a lieutenant's com- 
mission. He was engaged in several battles, and conducted 
himself in such a manner as to merit the approbation of his 
senior officers; but he fell gloriousl}'- at Brandy wine, while 
the battle was raging, pierced through the heart by a musket- 
ball. He was shot by a Hessian, who was under cover 
and who had, from the same place, already dispatched a 
number of persons. But this was his last shot; for ajyoung 
Virginian, who stood by the side of Holliday when he fell, 
rushed upon the Hessian, braving all danger, and hewed 
him to pieces with his sword before any defence could be 
made. 

The death of young Holliday was deeply lamented by his 
companions-in-arms, for he was brave and generous, and had 
not a single enemy in the line. His friends, after the battle, 
buried him near the spot w^here he fell ; and it is doubtful 



292 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

whether even now a hillock of greensward is raised to his 
memory. 

About the beginning of the year 1 779, the Indians along 
the frontier, emboldened by numerous successful depreda- 
tions, came into Bedford county — within the boundaries of 
which Holliday's Fort then was — in such formidable bands 
that many of the inhabitants fled to the eastern counties. 
The Hollidays, however, and some few others, tarried, in the 
hope that the Executive Council would render them aid. 
The following petition, signed by William Holliday and 
others, will give the reader some idea of the distress suffered 
by the pioneers; it was drawn up on the 29th of May, 
1779:— 
To the Honorable President and Council : — 

The Indians being now in the county, the frontier inhabitants 
being generally fled, leaves the few that remains in such a dis- 
tressed condition that pen can hardly describe, nor your honors 
can only have a faint idea of ; nor can it be conceived properly 
by any but such as are the subjects thereof; but, while we suf- 
fer in the part of the county that is most frontier, the inhabitants 
of the interior part of this county live at ease and safety. 

And we humbly conceive that by some immediate instruction 
from Council, to call them that are less exposed to our relief, we 
shall be able, under God, to repulse our enemies, and put it in 
the power of the distressed inhabitants to reap the fruits of their 
industry. Therefore, we humbly pray you would grant us such 
relief in the premises as you in your wisdom see meet. And 
your petitioners shall pray, etc. 

N. B. — There is a quantity of lead at the mines (Sinking Val- 
ley) in this county Council may procure for the use of said 
county, which will save carriage, and supply our wants with that 
article, which we cannot exist without at this place; and our 
flints are altogether expended. Therefore, we beg Council would 
furnish us with those necessaries as they in their wisdom see cause. 

P. S. — Please to supply us with powder to answer lead. 
(Signed) William Holliday, P. M. 

Thomas Coulter, Sheriff. 
Richard J. Delapt, Captain. 
Sam. Davidson. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 293 

The prayer of these petitioners was not speedily answered, 
and Holliday's Fort was evacuated soon after. The Council 
undoubtedly did all in its power to give the frontiers sup- 
port; but the tardy movements of the militia gave the sav- 
ages confidence, and drove the few settlers that remained al- 
most to despair. Eventually relief came, but not sufficient 
to prevent Indian depredations. At length, when these 
depredations and the dela3^s of the Council in furnishing suf- 
ficient force to repel these savage invasions had brought 
matters to such a crisis that forbearance ceased to be a virtue, 
the people of the neighborhood moved their families to Fort 
Roberdeau, in Sinking Valley, and Fetter's Fort, and formed 
themselves into scouting parties, and by these means pro- 
tected the frontier and enabled the settlers to gather in their 
crops in 1780; still, notwithstanding their vigilance, small 
bands of scalp-hunters occasionally invaded the county, and, 
when no scalps were to be found, compromised by stealing; 
horses, or by laying waste whatever fell in their way. 

In 1781, when Continental money was so terribly depreci- 
ated that it took, in the language of one of the old settlers, 
" seventeen dollars of it to buy a quart of whiskey," govern- 
ment was in too straitened a condition to furnish this frontier 
guard with ammunition and provisions, so that the force was. 
considerably reduced. Small scouting parties were still kept 
up, however, to watch the savages, who again made their ap- 
pearance in the neighborhood in the summer, retarding the. 
harvest operations. 

About the middle of July, the scouts reported every thing: 
quiet and no traces of Indians in the county. Accordingly^ 
Mr. Holliday proceeded to his farm, and, with the aid of his 
sons, succeeded in getting off and housing his grain. Early 
in August, Mr. Holliday, accompanied by his sons Patrick 
and Adam and his daughter Janet, then about fourteen years 
of age, left Fort Roberdeau for the purpose of taking off a. 
second crop of hay. On their arrival at the farm they went 
leisurely to work, and mowed the grass. The weather being 
extremely fine, in a few days they began to haul it in on a 



294 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

rudely-constructed sled, for in those primitive days few 
wagons were in use along the frontiers. They had taken in 
one load, returned, and filled the sled again, when an ac- 
quaintance named McDonald, a Scotchman, came along on 
horseback. He stopped, and they commenced a conversa- 
tion on the war. William Holliday was seated upon one of 
the horses that were hitched to the sled, his two sons were 
on one side of him, and his daughter on the opposite side- 
All of the men, as was customary then, were armed with 
rifles. While this conversation was going on, and without 
the slightest previous intimation, a volley was suddenly fired 
from a thicket some sixty or seventy yards off, by which 
Patrick and Adam were instantly killed and the horse shot 
from under Mr. Holliday. The attack was so sudden and 
unexpected that a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder 
from a cloudless sky could not have astonished him more. 
The echoes of the Indian rifles had scarcely died away be- 
fore the Indians themselves, to the number of eight or ten, 
with a loud '' whoop f" jumped from their place of conceal- 
ment, some brandishing their knives and hatchets and others 
reloading their rifles. 

Appalled at the shocking tragedy, and undecided for a 
moment what course to pursue, Holliday was surprised to 
see McDonald leap from his horse, throw away his rifle, run 
toward the Indians, and, with outstretched arms, cry "Bro- 
ther! Brother!" which it appears was a cry for quarter which 
the savages respected. Holliday, however, knew too much of 
the savage character to trust to their mercy — more especially 
as rebel scalps commanded nearly as good a price in British 
gold in Canada as prisoners ; so on the impulse of the mo- 
ment he sprang upon McDonald's horse and made an effort 
to get his daughter up behind him. But he was too late. 
The Indians were upon him, and he turned into the path 
which led down the ravine. The yells of the savages fright- 
ened the horse, and he galloped down the path ; but even 
the clattering of his hoofs did not drown the dying shrieks 
of his daughter, who was most barbarously butchered with 
a hatchet. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 295 

In a state of mind bordering on distraction, Holliday 
wandered about until nearly dark, when he got upon the 
Brush Mountain trail, on his way to Sinking Valley. His 
mind, however, was so deeply affected that he seemed to care 
little whither he went ; and, the night being exceedingly 
■dark, the horse lost the trail and wandered about the mount- 
ain for hours. Just at daybreak Mr. Holliday reached the 
fort, haggard and careworn, without hat or shoes, his clothes 
in tatters and his body lacerated and bleeding. He did not 
recognize either the fort or the sentinel on duty. He was 
taken in, and the fort alarmed, but it was some time before 
he could make any thing like an intelligible statement of 
what had occurred the day previous. Without waiting for 
the particulars in detail, a command of fifteen men was de- 
spatched to Holliday's farm. They found the bodies of 
Patrick and Adam precisely where thej^ fell, and that of 
Janet but a short distance from the sled, and all scalped. 
As soon as the necessary arrangements could be made, the 
bodies of the slain were interred on the farm ; and a rude 
tombstone still marks the spot where the victims of savage 
cruelty repose. 

This was a sad blow to Mr. Holliday ; and it was long be- 
fore he recovered from it effectually. But the times steeled 
men to bear misfortunes that would now crush and annihi- 
late the bravest. 

The Scotchman McDonald, whom we have mentioned as 
ibeing present at the Holliday massacre, accompanied the 
savages, as he afterward stated, to the Miami Valley, where 
he adopted their manners and customs, and remained with 
them until the restoration of peace enabled him to escape. 
He returned to the valley of the Juniata; but he soon found 
that Holliday had prejudiced the public mind against him 
by declaring the part he took at the time of the massacre to 
have been cowardly in the extreme, notwithstanding that 
the cowardice of McDonald actually saved Holliday's life, 
by affording him means to escape. The people generally 
shunned McDonald, and he led rather an unenviable life; 



296 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

yet we might suppose, taking all the circumstances into con- 
sideration, that, in illustrating the axiom that "self-preser- 
vation is the first law of nature," he did nothing more than 
any man, with even less prudence than a canny Scotchman, 
would have done. But any thing having the least squint- 
ing toward cowardice was deemed a deadly sin by the pio- 
neers, and McDonald soon found it necessary to seek a home 
somewhere else. 

After the declaration of peace, or, rather, after the ratifica- 
tion of the treaty, Gordon came back to Pennsylvania and 
claimed his land under its stipulation. He had no difficulty 
in proving that he had never taken up arms against the 
colonies, and Congress agreed to purchase back his lands. 

The Commissioners to adjust claims, after examining the 
lands, reported them worth sixteen dollars an acre ; and this 
amount was paid to Adam HoUiday, who suddenly found 
himself the greatest monied man in this county — having in 
his possession sixteen or seventeen thousand dollars. 

Adam Holliday lived to a good old age, and died at his 
residence on the bank of the river, in 1801. He left two 
heirs — his son John, and a daughter married to William 
Reynolds. 

After the estate was settled up, it was found that John 
Holliday was the richest man in this county. He married 
the daughter of Lazarus Lowry, of Frankstown, in 1803, 
and in 1807 he left for Johnstown, where he purchased the 
farm, and all the land upon which Johnstown now stands, 
from a Dr. Anderson, of Bedford. Fearing the place would 
never be one of any importance, John Holliday, in a few 
years, sold out to Peter Livergood for eight dollars an acre, 
returned to Hollidaysburg, and entered into mercantile pur- 
suits. 

William Holliday, too, died at a good old age, and lies 
buried on his farm by the side of his children, who were 
massacred by the Indians. 

In the ordinary transmutation of worldly affairs, the lands 
of both the old pioneers passed out of the hands of their de- 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 297 

scendants ; yet a beautiful town stands as a lasting monu- 
ment to the name, and the descendants have multiplied 
until the name of Holliday is known not only in Pennsyl- 
vania, but over the whole Union. 

[Note. — There are several contradictory accounts in existence touching the 
massacre of the Holliday children. Our account of it is evidently the true 
version, for it was given to us by Mr. Maguire, who received it from Mr. Hol- 
liday shortly after the occurrence of the tragedy. 

It may be as well here to state that the original Hollidays were Irishmen 
and Presbyterians. It is necessary to state this, because we have heard argu- 
ments about their religious faith. Some avow that they were Catholics, and 
as an evidence refer to the fact that William called one of his offspring "Pat- 
rick." Without being able to account for the name of a saint so prominent 
in the calendar as Patrick being found in a Presbyterian family, we can only 
give the words of Mr. Maguire^ who said : — 

"I was a Catholic, and old Billy and Adam Holliday were Presbyterians; 
but in those days we found matters of more importance to attend to than 
quarrelling about religion. We all worshipped the same God, and some of the 
forms and ceremonies attending church were very much alike, especially in 
1778, when the men of all denominations, in place of hymn-books, prayer- 
books, and Bibles, carried to church with them loaded rifles !" 

It may be as well to state here also that the McDonald mentioned had two 
brothers — one a daring frontier-man, the other in the army, — so that the reader 
will please not confound them.] 



298 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

OLD INDIAN TOWN OF FRANKSTOWN — INDIAN BURIAL-PLACES — 
MASSACRE OF THE BEDFORD SCOUT, ETC. 

4RANKST0WN is probably the oldest place on the 
Juniata River — traders having mentioned it as early 
as 1750. The Indian town was located at the mouth 
of a small run, near where McCune's Mill now stands, and 
at one time contained a considerable number of inhabitants. 
The Indian name of the place was Assunepachla, which signi- 
fies a meeting of many waters, or the place where the waters 
join. This would seem to be an appropriate name, since, 
within a short distance of the place, the river is formed by 
what was then known as the Frankstown Branch, the Bea- 
ver Dam Branch, the Brush Run, and the small run near 
McCune's Mill. 

The name of Frankstown was given it by the traders. 
Harris, in his report of the distance between the Susquehanna 
and the Alleghany, called it " Frank (Stephen's) Town." The 
general impression is that the town was named by the traders 
in honor of an old chief named Frank. This, however, is an 
error. It was named after an old German Indian trader 
named Stephen Franks, who lived cotemporaneously with 
old Hart, and whose post was at this old Indian town. The 
truth this becomes apparent when we remember that the 
Indians could not pronounce the r in their language ; hence 
no chief was likely to bear the name Frank at that early 
day. Old Franks,' being a great friend of the Indians, lived 
and died among them, and it w^as after his death that one 
of the chiefs took his name ; hence arose the erroneous im- 
pression that the name was given to the town in honor of 
the chief. 

How long Assunepachla was an Indian settlement cannot 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 301 

be conjectured, but, unquestionably, long before the Indians 
of the valley had any intercourse with the whites. This is 
evidenced by the fact that where the town stood, as well as 
on the flat west of the town, relics of rudely-constructed pot- 
tery, stone arrow-heads, stone hatchets, &c., have repeatedly 
been found until within the last few years. 

The use of stone edge-tools was abandoned as soon as the 
savages obtained a sight of a superior article, — probably as 
early as 1730. The first were brought to the valley by 
Indians who had received them as presents from the pro- 
prietary family. 

It is stated that the first brought to Assunepachla cost a 
special trip to Philadelphia. Three chiefs, having seen 
hatchets and knives at Standing Stone, were so fascinated 
with their utility that they resolved to have some. Accord- 
ingly they went to work at trapping ; and in the fall, each 
with an immense load of skins, started on foot for Philadel- 
phia, where they arrived after a long and fatiguing march. 
They soon found what they wanted at the shop of an Eng- 
lishman ; but, being unable to talk English, they merely 
deposited their furs upon the counter and pointed to the 
tomahawks and knives. This indicated trade ; and the 
Englishman, after a critical examination of their skins, 
which he found would yield him not less than £100, threw 
them carelessly under the counter, and gave them a hatchet 
and a knife each. With these the savages were about to 
depart, well satisfied; but the trader suddenly bethinking 
himself of the possibility of their falling in with the interpre- 
ters, and their ascertaining the manner in which they had 
been swindled, called them back, and very generously added 
three clasp-knives and a quantity of brass jewelry. 

With these they wended their way back, proud as em- 
perors of their newly-acquired weapons. Never did chiefs 
enter a place with more pomp and importance than our war- 
riors. The very dogs barked a welcome, and the Indians 
came forth from their wigwams to greet the great eastern 
travellers. Their hatchets, knives and trinkets passed from 



302 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

hand to hand, and savage encomiums were lavished un- 
sparingly upon them ; but when their practicability was 
tested, the climax of savage enthusiasm was reached. The 
envied possessors were lions : they cut, hewed, and scored, 
just because they could. 

But — alas for all things mutable! — their glory was not 
destined to last long. The traders soon appeared with tho 
same kind of articles, and readily exchanged for half a dozen 
skins what the warriors had spent a season in trapping and 
a long journey to procure. 

On the point of Chimney Ridge, near Wert's farm, below 
Hollidaysburg, was an Indian burial-place, and another on 
the small piece of table-land near the mouth of Brush Run. 
At both places skeletons of mighty chiefs and all-powerful 
warriors have been ruthlessly torn from their places of 
sepulture by the plough, and many other relics have been 
exhumed. 

The greater portion of the warriors residing at Franks- 
town went to Ohio in 1755, and took iip the hatchet for 
their " brothers," the French, and against Onus, or their 
Father Penn. This act, the colonial government persuaded 
itself to believe, was altogether mercenary on the part of the 
savages. The real cause, as we have already stated, was the 
dissatisfaction which followed the purchase of the Juniata 
Valley by the Penns, for a few paltry pounds, from the Iro- 
quois, at Albany, in 1754. 

The town of Frankstown still continued to be a promi- 
nent Indian settlement until the army of General Forbes 
pacssed up the Raystown Branch, when the spies sent out 
brought such exaggerated reports of the warlike appearance 
and strength of the army that the settlement was en- 
tirely broken up, and the warriors, with their squaws, 
pappooses, and movable effects, crossed the Alleghany by 
the Kittaning War-Path, and bade adieu to the valley 
which they were only too well convinced was no longer 
their own. 

The remains of their bark huts, their old corn-fields, and 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 303 

other indications of their presence, were in existence until 
after the beginning of the present century. 

On the flat several white settlers erected their cabins at an 
early day, and a few near the old town, and others where 
the town of Frankstown now stands. 

During the Revolution, as we have stated, a stable erected 
by Peter Titus was turned into a fortress. In summer, the 
location of the fort can still be traced by the luxuriant 
growth of vegetation upon it. This fort was called Holli- 
day's Fort. The fort at Fetter's, a mile west of Hollidays- 
burg, was known as the Frankstown garrison. In those days 
there was no such place as Hollidaysburg, and the Franks- 
town district took in a scope of country which now serves 
for five or six very large townships ; in short, every place 
was Frankstown within a radius of at least ten miles. 

Holliday's Fort was a mere temporary affair ; while the 
Frankstown garrison was a substantial stockade, manned 
and provisioned in such a manner that a thousand savages 
could by no possible means have taken it. It never was 
assaulted except upon one occasion, and then the red-skins 
were right glad to beat a retreat before they were able to 
fire a gun. 

Near this fort occurred the massacre of the Bedford scout. 
This was unquestionably the most successful savage sortie 
made upon the whites in the valley during the Revolution ; 
and, as some of the bravest and best men of Bedford county 
fell in this massacre, it did not fail to create an excitement 
compared to which all other excitements that ever occurred 
in the valley were perfect calms. 

We shall, in the first place, proceed to give the first report 
of the occurrence, sent by George Ashman, one of the sub- 
lieutenants of the county, to Arthur Buchanan, at Kishico- 
quillas. Ashman says: — 

Sir : — By an express this moment from Frankstown, we have 
the bad news. As a party of volunteers from Bedford was going 
to Frankstown, a party of Indians fell in with them this morning 
and killed thirty of them. Only seven made their escape to 



304 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

the garrison of Frankstown. I hope that you'll exert yourself in 
getting men to go up to the Stone ; and pray let the river-people 
know, as they may turn out. I am, in health, 

Geo. Ashman. 

Of course Colonel Ashman was not near the place, and his 
dispatch to Buchanan is, as a natural consequence, made up 
from the exaggerated reports that were carried to him at the 
instance of the affrighted people residing in the vicinity 
where the massacre occurred. The following is the official 
report, transmitted by Ashman to President Reed : — 

Bedford County, June 12, 1781. 
Sir: — I have to inform you that on Sunday, the third of this 
instant, a party of the rangers under Captain Boyd, eight in num- 
ber, with twenty-five volunteers under Captain Moore and Lieu- 
tenant Smith, of the militia of this county, had an engagement 
with a party of Indians (said to be numerous) within three miles 
of Frankstown, where seventy-five of the Cumberland militia 
were stationed, commanded by Captain James Young. Some of 
the party running into the garrison acquainting Captain Young 
of what had happened, he issued out a party immediately, and 
brought in seven more, five of whom are wounded, and two made 
their escape to Bedford, — eight killed and scalped, — Captain 
Boyd, Captain Moore, and Captain Dunlap missing. Captain 
Young, expecting from the enemy's numbers that his garrison 
would be surrounded, sent express to me immediately ; but, be- 
fore I could collect as many volunteers as was sufficient to march 
to Frankstown with, the enemy had returned over the Alleghany 
Hill. The waters being high, occasioned by heavy rains, they 
could not be pursued. This county, at this time, is in a deplora- 
ble situation. A number of families are flying away daily ever 
since the late damage was done. I can assure your Excellency 
that if immediate assistance is not sent to this county that the 
whole of the frontier inhabitants will move off in a few days. 
Colonel Abraham Smith, of Cumberland, has just informed me 
that he has no orders to send us any more militia from Cumber- 
land county to our assistance, which I am much surprised to 
hear. I shall move my family to Maryland in a few days, as I 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 305 

am convinced that not any one settlement is able to make any 
stand against such numbers of the enemy. If your Excellency 
should please to order us any assistance, less than three hundred 
will be of but little relief to this county. Ammunition we have 
not any; and the Cumberland militia will be discharged in two 
days. It is dreadful to think what the consequences of leaving 
such a number of helpless inhabitants may be to the cruelties of 
a savage enemy. 

Please to send me by the first opportunity three hundred 
pounds, as I cannot possibly do the business without money. 
You may depend that nothing shall be wanting in me to serve 
my country as far as my abilities. 
I have the honor to be 

Your Excellency's most obedient, humble servant, 

George Ashman, Lieut. Bedford County. 

It would appear that even a man holding an official station 
is liable to gross mistakes. In this instance, Ashman, who 
lived remote from the scene of the disaster, was evidently 
misled by the current rumors, and such he transmitted; for 
there are still persons alive, who lived at the time of the oc- 
currence in the immediate vicinity, who pronounce Ashman's 
statement as erroneous, and who give an entirely different 
version of the affair. 

The seventy Cumberland county militia, under strict mili- 
tary discipline, were sent first to Standing Stone, and after- 
ward to Frankstown, early in the spring of 1781. They were 
under the command of Colonel Albright and Captain Young, 
and were sent with a view to waylay the gaps of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains, and preventing any savages from coming 
into the valley. Instead of doing so, however, they proved 
themselves an inefficient body of men, with dilatory officers, 
who chose rather the idle life of the fort than scouting to in- 
tercept the savages. In fact, these men, in the service and 
pay of the Supreme Executive Council of the State to protect 
the frontier, were never one solitary cent's worth of advan- 
tage to the inhabitants. Such a force, one would suppose, 
would have inspired the people with confidence, and been 
20 



306 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

fully able to cope with or repel the largest war-party of sav- 
ages that ever trod the Kittaning War-Path during the Revo- 
lutionary struggle. 

Notwithstanding the presence of this large body of men, 
stationed as it were almost at the mouth of the gap through 
which the Indians entered the valley, the depredations of 
the savages were almost of daily occurrence. The ineffi- 
ciency of the Cumberland militia, who either could not or 
would not check the marauders, at length exasperated the 
settlers to such an extent that they resolved to form them- 
selves into a scouting party, and range through the county 
for two months. 

This project was favored by Colonel Ashman, and he 
agreed to furnish a company of rangers to join them. The 
enrolment of volunteers by Captain Moore, of Scotch Valley, 
assisted by his lieutenant, a Mr. Smith, from the vicinity of 
Frankstown, proceeded; and on the second of June, 1781, 
these men met at Holliday's Fort, then abandoned for want 
of provisions. There they were joined by the rangers, under 
command of Captain Boyd and Lieutenant Harry Woods, 
of Bedford, but, instead of there being a companj^, as the 
volunteers were led to expect, there were but eight men and 
the two officers above named. 

From Holliday's Fort they marched to Fetter's, where 
they contemplated spending the Sabbath. It was their in- 
tention to march through the Kittaning Gap to an old State 
road, (long since abandoned,) from thence to Pittsburg, and 
home by way of Bedford. 

While debating the matter and making the necessary ar- 
rangements, two spies came in and reported that they had 
come upon an Indian encampment near Hart's Sleeping Place, 
which had apparently been just abandoned, as the fire was 
still burning ; that, from the number of bark huts, the sav- 
ages must number from twenty-five to thirty. 

This raised quite a stir in the camp, as the scouts evidently 
were eager for the fray. The officers, who were regular 
woodsmen, and knew that the Indians would not venture 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 307 

into the settlement until the day following, were confident of 
meeting them near the mouth of the gap and giving them 
battle. They at once tendered to Colonel Albright the com- 
mand of the expedition; but he refused to accept it. They 
then importuned him to let a portion of his men, who were 
both anxious and willing, accompany them ; but this, too, 
he refused. 

Nothing daunted, however, the rangers and the volunteers 
arose by daybreak on Sunday morning, put their rifles in 
condition, eat their breakfast, and, with five days' provisions 
in their knapsacks, started for the mountain. 

We sincerely regret that the most strenuous effort on our 
part to procure a list of this scout proved futile. Here and 
there we picked up the names of a few who were in it; but 
nothing would have given us greater pleasure than to insert 
a full and correct list of these brave men. In addition to 
the officers named, we may mention the following privates: 
— James Somerville, two Coleman's, two Holliday's, two 
brothers named Jones, a man named Grey, one of the Beattys, 
Michael Wallack, and Edward Milligan. 

The path led close along the river, and the men marched 
in Indian file, as the path was narrow. When they reached 
the flat above where Temperance Mill now stands, and within 
thirty rods of the mouth of Sugar Run, the loud warwhoop 
rang upon the stillness of the Sabbath morning ; a band of 
savages rose from the bushes on the left-hand side of the 
road, firing a volley at the same time, by which fifteen of 
the brave scout were stretched dead in the path. The re- 
mainder fled, in consternation, in every direction, — some 
over the river in the direction of Frankstown, others toward 
Fetter's Fort. A man named Jones, one of the fleetest run- 
ners, reached the fort first. To screen the scout from the 
odium of running, he reported the number of the enemy so 
large that Albright refused to let any of his command go to 
the relief of the unfortunate men. 

As the Colemans were coming to the fort, they found the 
other Jones lying behind a log for the purpose of resting, as 



308 HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

he said. Coleman advised him to push on to the fort, which 
he promised to do. 

Captain Young at length started out with a party to bring 
in the wounded. The man Jones was found resting behind 
the log, but the rest was a lasting one; he was killed and 
scalped. Another man, who had been wounded, was also 
followed a short distance and killed and scalped, — making, 
in all, seventeen persons who fell by this sad and unlooked- 
for event. In addition to the seventeen killed, five were 
wounded, who were found concealed in various places in the 
woods and removed to the fort. Some reached the fort in 
safety, others were missing, — among the latter, Harry Woods, 
James Somerville, and Michael Wallack. 

It appears that these three men started over the river, and 
ran up what is now known as O'Friel's Ridge, hotly pursued 
by a single savage. Woods and Wallack were in front, and 
Somerville behind, when the moccasin of the latter became 
untied. He stooped down to fix it, as it was impossible to 
ascend the steep hill with the loose moccasin retarding his 
progress. While in this position, the Indian, with uplifted 
tomahawk, was rapidly approaching him, when Woods 
turned suddenly and aimed with his empty rifle* at the In- 
dian. This caused the savage to jump behind a tree scarcely 
large enough to cover his body, from which he peered, and 
recognised Woods. 

"No hurt Woods!" yelled the Indian; "no hurt Woods!" 

This Indian happened to be the son of the old Indian 
Hutson, to whom George Woods of Bedford paid a small 
annual stipend in tobacco, for delivering him from bondage. 
Hutson had frequently taken his son to Bedford, and it was 
by this means that he had become acquainted with Harry 
and readily recognised him. Woods, although he recog- 
nised Hutson, had been quite as close to Indians as he cared 
about getting ; so the three continued their route over the 

* Woods shot an Indian. His rifle was the only one discharged in what 
Colonel Ashman termed an "engagement." 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 309 

ridge, and by a circuitous tramp reached the fort in the af- 
ternoon. 

Many years afterward, long after the war, when Woods 
lived in Pittsburg, he went down to the Alleghany River to 
see several canoe-loads of Indians that had just arrived from 
above. He had scarcely reached the landing when one of 
the chiefs jumped out, shook him warmly by the hand, and 
said — 

" Woods, you run like debble up Juniata Hill." 

It was Hutson — by this time a distinguished chief in his 
tribe. 

The fate of the unfortunate scout was soon known all over 
the country, expresses having been sent in every direction. 

On Monday morning Captain Young again went out with 
a small party to bury the dead, and many of them were in- 
terred near the spot where they fell; while others, after the 
men got tired of digging graves, were merely covered with 
bark and leaves, and left on the spot to be food for the wolves, 
which some of the bodies unquestionably became, as Jones 
sought for that of his brother on Tuesday, and found noth- 
ing but the crushed remains of some bones. 

In 1852, a young man in the employ of Mr. Burns ex- 
humed one of these skeletons with the plough. It was 
found near the surface of the earth, on the bank of the river. 
The skull was perforated with a bullet-hole, and was in a re- 
markable state of preservation, although it had been in the 
ground uncoffined for a period of seventy-one years ! It was 
placed in the earth again. 

Immediately after the news of the massacre was spread, the 
people from Standing Stone and other places gathered at Fet- 
ter's ; and on the Tuesday following a party of nearly one hun- 
dred men started in pursuit of the Indians. Colonel Albright 
was solicited to accompany this force with his command and 
march until they overtook the enemy ; but he refused. The 
men went as far as Hart's Sleeping Place, but they might 
just as well have remained at home ; for the savages, with 
the scalps of the scout dangling from their belts, were then 
far on their wav to Detroit. 



310 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

When the firing took place, it was plainly heard at the 
fort; and some of the men, fully convinced that the scout 
had been attacked, asked Colonel Albright to go out with 
his command to their relief He merely answered by say- 
ing that he " knew his own business." 

For his part in the matter, he gained the ill-will of the 
settlers, and it was very fortunate that his time expired when 
it did. The settlers were not much divided in opinion as to 
whether he was a rigid disciplinarian or a coward. 

Men, arms, and ammunition, in abundance followed this 
last outrage; but it was the last formidable and warlike in- 
cursion into the Juniata Valley. 



v 




HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. oil 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

shaver's creek — MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF OLD SHAVER — HEROIC 
CONDUCT OF TWO CHILDREN^ABDUCTION OF MISS EWING AND MISS 
m'cORMICK — PETER CRUM, THE LAST VICTIM OF THE SAVAGES, ETC. 

^-^LHE original settlement at Shaver's Creek was made in 
a ll 1770, by an old gentleman named Shaver. He was 
^4'^ followed by Anderson, Maguire, the Donnelleys, and 
some few others. Old Shaver met his death in a most singu- 
lar manner. One evening he left his home just at twilight, 
for the purpose of putting his horse into a pasture-field. He 
-did not return ; but his absence created no special alarm, as 
this was before the war, and before any savages had appeared 
in the valley with murderous intent. Next morning, how- 
ever, his family not finding him, a search was instituted, 
and his body, minus the head, was found in a lane near the 
pasture-field. This was regarded as a most mysterious mur- 
der, and .would have been charged to the Indians at once, 
had they ever been known to take a man's hfead off" on any 
previous occasion. But as they always found the scalp to 
answer their purpose, and never encumbered themselves 
with the head, people shrewdly suspected that the Indians 
had nothing to do with the murder. The family offered a 
reward of £50 for the head ; and, although the country was 
searched in every direction, it never was found. 

The most active and energetic man in the Shaver's Creek 
settlement during the Revolutionary war was Samuel An- 
derson. He succeeded, mainly b}" his own exertions and 
the aid of a few neighbors on the creek and the Little Juni- 
ata, in erecting a block-house fort on the flat near the mouth 
of the creek, which was more or less occupied while the war 
continued ; and it is but a few years since the last vestiges of 
this old fort were swept away by a freshet. 

The fort itself never was assailed; and it just happens to 



314 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

strike us forcibly at this time as a singular fact that the In- 
dians, during the Revolutionary war, always kept clear of 
the forts. Whether they did not understand the nature of 
them, or feared the numbers usually congregated in them, 
we do not pretend to say ; but they always kept at a respect- 
ful distance from them, Anderson's Fort, like the others, 
was frequently disturbed by alarms — sometimes real and 
sometimes false. 

An amusing instance of a false alarm at Anderson's Fort 
was given the wTiter. In 1779, all manner of rumors and 
reports were afloat. Everybody was forted, and the Indians 
formed the entire subject of conversation. One afternoon, a 
half-witted, cowardly fellow was sent up the path to bring 
the cows to the fort. He had been out about fifteen minutes 
when he returned, looking wild and haggard, and almost 
out of breath, declaring that the Indians were coming down 
the creek in full force. In an instant the whole fort was in 
commotion: men seized their rifles, dogs barked, children 
screamed, and everybody swore that the audacious savages 
should have a warm reception. The entire force of the gar- 
rison rallied out to a hill, and, with cocked rifles, awaited 
the appearance of the enemy on the brow. Lo ! he came ; 
but, instead of Indians, the alarm was suddenly quieted by 
the appearance of three coivs! A mock court-martial was 
ordered to try the half-witted chap for raising a false alarm, 
and the jokers of the fort convicted him and passed sentence 
of death upon him. The joke came near proving fatal to 
the poor fellow, who for a long time could not be divested of 
the idea that he was to be shot. 

In 1779, one of the most remarkable cases on record oc- 
curred up Shaver's Creek. The particulars are vague ; but 
of the actual occurrence of what we are about to relate there 
is no doubt whatever — the circumstance having been men- 
tioned to us by two or three persons. 

Late in the fall of that year, two boys, aged respectively 
eight and ten years, while engaged at play near a house in 
the neighborhood of Manor Hill, were taken captive by two 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 315 

lurking savages, who came suddenly upon them, and imme- 
diately started in the direction of the mountain. After travel- 
ling some eight miles, they halted, built a fire in the woods, 
leaned their rifles against a tree, and cooked some dried veni- 
son, of which they all partook. After the meal, one of them 
drew from his pouch a canteen filled with whiskey, which 
they drank at short intervals until it was entirely drained of 
its contents. By that time they had become very garrulous 
and very brave. They told war-stories, sang war-songs, 
danced war-dances, and challenged the whole settlement to 
mortal combat. The other Indian then pulled out his can- 
teen, also filled with fire-water, which was consumed in like 
manner ; but, by the time it was drank, their mirth and 
boasting gave way to the stupor of inordinate intoxication, 
and, wrapping their blankets around them, they stretched 
themselves before the fire, and were soon in a deep sleep. 

The oldest boy, who had feigned sleep some time previous, 
now got up and shook the younger, who also got upon his 
feet. He then took one of the rifles, cocked it, and rested it 
on a log, with the muzzle within a few inches of the head of 
one of the savages, then motioned the other boy to hold it. 
He then got the other rifle, and in like manner placed its 
muzzle near the head of the other savage. So far, the whole 
proceeding had been carried on by pantomimic action, and 
not a word spoken ; but, everything being now in readiness, 
the boy whispered " Now f" and both rifles went off" at the 
same time. The elder boy killed his man outright ; but the 
weight of the butt of the rifle in the hands of the younger 
threw the muzzle up, and he merely tore his face very badly. 
The wounded savage attempted to rise, but, before he could 
do so, the boys commenced running for home; nor did they 
stop until they reached it, which was at two o'clock in the 
morning and just as a party had assembled to go in search 
of them. 

Their story was soon told ; but so incredible did it appear 
that no person believed them. Instead of giving credit to 
their narrative of improbabilities, the parents were inclined 



316 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

to whip them and send them to bed, for getting lost in the 
woods and then lying about it. Next day, however, they 
persisted so strongly in their statement, and told such a 
straightforward story, that at length a party of some six or 
eight persons agreed to go to the place, providing the child- 
ren accompanied them. To this they readily assented; and 
the anxiety they manifested to go soon removed all doubt as 
to the truth of their statement. 

In due time they reached the spot, where they found a 
dead Indian, the two rifles and canteens ; but the wounded 
savage was missing. Where he had lain there was a pool of 
blood ; and, as it was probable that he had not gone far, a 
proposition was made to search for him, which was about 
being acted upon, when one of the men noticed blood upon 
the trunk of the tree under which they stood, which caused 
him to look up, and among its top branches he saw the 
wounded savage. The frightful w^ound upon his face 
awakened the pity of some of the men, and they proposed 
getting him down ; but an old ranger, who was in the party, 
swore that he had never had a chance at an Indian in his life, 
especially a treed one ; that he would rather lose his life than 
miss the opportunity of shooting him ; and, before an effort 
could be made to prevent it, the savage received a ball 
through his brain, came crashing down through the limbs 
of the tree, and fell by the side of his dead companion. 
Their bodies were not disturbed ; but their rifles were car- 
ried home, and given to the boys, who kept them as trophies 
of the event. 

This daring and heroic act on the part of children so young 
illustrates most forcibly the kind of material people were 
made of who flourished in "the days that tried men's souls." 

In 1782, Miss Elizabeth Ewing and Miss McCormick were 
abducted by the Indians, between Shaver's Creek and Stone 
Valley. They had been to the former place, and were re- 
turning home by a path, when they were surprised and 
taken prisoners by a small band of roving Indians. It was 
late in October, at a time when no suspicion w^as entertained 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 317 

that the Indians would ever again enter the valley. None 
had been seen or heard of for months, and all the alarms and 
fears of savages had subsided ; hence their absence was little 
thought of until they had been several days gone. It was 
then deemed entirely too late to send a force to recapture 
them. 

When captured, they had some bread with them, which 
they scattered along the path they took, in hopes that if their 
friends followed it would give them a clue to the route they 
took. The wily savages detected the stratagem, and took 
the bread from them. They next broke the bushes along 
the path ; but the Indians saw the object of this, too, and 
compelled them to desist. They then travelled for seven 
days, through sleet, rain, and snow, until they reached the 
lake, where Miss McCormick was given as a present to an 
old Indian woman who happened to take a fancy to her. 

Miss Ewing was taken to Montreal, where, fortunately for 
her, an exchange of prisoners took place soon after, and she 
was sent to Philadelphia, and from thence made her way 
home. From her Mr. McCormick learned the fate of his 
daughter — her communication being the first word of intel- 
ligence he had received concerning her. He soon made ar- 
rangements to go after her. The journey was a long one, es- 
pecially by the route he proposed to take, — by way of Phila- 
delphia and New .York; nevertheless, the love he bore his 
daughter prompted him to undertake it cheerfully. 

After many days' travelling he arrived at the place where 
Miss Ewing and Miss McCormick parted ; but, alas ! it was 
only to realize painfully the restless and migratory character 
of the Indians, who had abandoned the settlement and gone 
into the interior of Canada. Again he journe3^ed on, until 
he finally reached the place where the tribe was located, and 
found his daughter in an Indian family, treated as one of the 
family, and subject to no more menial employment than 
Indian women generally. The meeting of father and daugh- 
ter, which neither expected, must have been an affecting 
one — a scene that may strike the imagination more vividly 
than pen can depict it. 



318 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Mr. McCormick made immediate arrangements to take his 
daughter with him ; but, to his surprise, the Indians objected. 
Alone, and, as it were, in their power, he was at a loss what 
course to pursue, when he bethought himself of the power 
of money. That was the proper chord to touch ; but the 
ransom-money asked was exorbitantly large. The matter 
was finally compromised by Mr. McCormick paying nearly 
all the money in his possession, retaining barely enough to 
defray their expenses ; after which they went on their way 
rejoicing, and, after a weary journey, reached their home in 
safety. 

It may be as well to mention that Miss McCormick was a 
sister to Robert McCormick, Sr., long a resident of Hollidays- 
burg, who died a year or two ago in Altoona, and the aunt 
of William, Robert, and Alexander McCormick, now resi- 
dents of Altoona. 

And now we come to the last Indian massacre in the 
Valley of the Juniata. It occurred on the left bank of the 
Little Juniata, near the farm of George Jackson, in the latter 
part of August, 1781. 

At that time there was a regular force of militia in the 
garrison at Huntingdon, another at Shaver's Creek and an- 
other at Fetter's. The Indians were well aware of this, for 
they constantly kept themselves advised by spies of the pro- 
gress of affairs in the valley. The settlers, feeling secure in 
the presence of the militia, abandoned the forts and went to 
their farms. During the summer of 1781, the alarms were 
so few that people began to consider the days of their trials 
and tribulations as passed away ; but it appears that it was 
ordained that another black crime should be added to the 
long catalogue of Indian cruelties. 

One evening George Jackson, hearing a noise in a corn- 
field adjoining his house, went to the door to ascertain the 
cause. Dark as the night was, he made out the figures of 
two men, who he thought were stealing corn, or at least 
about no good ; so he let loose his dogs — a hound and a bull- 
dog — upon them. The hound gave tongue, and both started 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 319 

directly into the field, where they bayed for some time; but 
the men did not quit the field. In ten minutes the dogs re- 
turned, and Mr. Jackson found that the skull of the bull- 
dog had been wounded with a tomahawk. This circum- 
stance led him to suspect the real character of the intruders, 
and he went into his house, took down his rifle, and returned 
to the porch. The light which shone out of the door when 
Jackson opened it revealed the position of affairs to the 
Indians, and they ran to the other end of the corn-field, 
closely pursued by the hound. 

Peter Crum, a worthy man, well known and highly re- 
spected by all the settlers in the neighborhood, was a near 
neighbor of Jackson's. He had rented the Minor Tub 
Mill, and on the morning after the above occurrence he went 
to the mill a little before daylight and set it going, then 
raised a net he had placed in the stream the night before ; 
after which he started leisurely on his way home to get his 
breakfast. In his left hand he carried a string of fish, and 
over his right shoulder his rifle ; for, notwithstanding the 
great security people felt, they were so much in the habit of 
constantly having a rifle lor a travelling companion, that 
many of the old pioneers carried it on all occasions during 
"the remainder of their lives. 

When Crum reached the bend of the river, a mile below 
his mill, at a time when an attack from Indians would prob- 
ably have been the last thing he would have thought of, he 
heard the sharp crack of a rifle, and on looking around saw 
two Indians on the hill-side. He dropped his fish, and 
opened the pan of his rifle to look at the priming, when he 
noticed that he was shot through the right thumb — at least 
it was so conjectured. Catching a glimpse of one of the In- 
dians, he attempted to fire, but the blood of his wound had 
saturated the priming. The Indians noticed his unavailing 
effort to shoot, and, probably thinking that he was trying to 
intimidate them with an empty gun, jumped into the road. 
One of them it appeared, was armed with a rifle, the other 
with a heavy war-club. The latter, it is supposed, approached 



320 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

him from behind, and dealt him a blow upon the skull^ 
which felled him, and the blow was evidently followed up 
until the entire back part of his head was crushed in the 
most shocking manner, after which they scalped him, and 
disappeared. 

When found, (which was supposed to be within two hours 
after the murder,) Crum was lying with his face to the ground, 
his rifle by his side, and the Indian war-club, clotted with 
blood and brains, lying across his body, — a sad sight for his 
wife, who was among the first on the spot after the tragedy. 

This murder, committed in open daylight on a frequented 
road, in the very heart of a thickly-populated country, did 
not fail to produce the most intense excitement, and a party 
of rangers started at once after the marauders. They soon 
got upon their trail, and followed them to the top of the 
mountain, getting sight of them several times ; but they 
were always out of rifle-range. They knew they were pur- 
sued, and took such a route as the rangers could not follow, 
and so eluded them, and carried in triumph to the British 
garrison at Detroit the last scalp taken by the red men in 
the Juniata Valley. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 323 



CHAPTER XXXIIT. 

WARRIOR RIDGE — WARRIOR's MARK — JOB CHILLAWAY, SHANEY 
JOHN, AND CAPTAIN LOGAN, THE LAST RED MEN IN THE JUNIATA 
VALLEY. 






,ARRIOR'S RIDGE, between Alexandria and Hun- 
tingdon, derives its name from an Indian path which 
ran along the summit of it. The Pulpit Rocks, not 
unlike the altars of the Druids, shaped into fantastic forms 
by the hand of nature, as well as the wild romantic scenery 
around them, at once suggest the idea of a place of meeting 
of the warriors, — a spot where the councils of the brave were 
held, with the greensward of the mountain for a carpet and 
the blue vault of heaven for a canopy. Were we not so well 
aware of the fact that the Indians preferred the lowlands of 
the valleys for places of abode, we could almost fancy the 
neighborhoood of Pulpit Rocks to have been a glorious 
abiding-place ; but of the occurrences and events that took 
place on the ridge we are in hopeless ignorance. Had some 
Indian historian of an early day transmitted to posterity, 
either by oral or written tradition, one-half the events of 
Warrior Ridge, we might add considerable interest to these 
pages ; but as it is, we must content ourself, if not our readers, 
with this brief notice of the famous Warrior Rid^e. 

Warrior's Mark was another celebrated place for the In- 
dians. It lies upon a flat piece of table-land, and is just the 
kind of a place where savages would be likely to meet to 
debate measures of great importance and to concoct schemes 
for their future movements. The name of the place origi- 
nated from the fact of certain oak-trees in the vicinity hav- 
ing a crescent or half-moon cut upon them with hatchets, so 
deep that traces can still be seen of them, or at least could 
be some years ago. The signification of them was known 



324 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

to the Indians alone ; but it is evident that some meaning 
was attached to them, for, during the Revokition, every 
time a band of savages came into the valley one or more 
fresh warrior marks were put upon the trees. The Indian 
town stood upon the highway or path leading from Kittan- 
ing, through Penn's Valley, to the Susquehanna. It was 
still considerable of a village when the white men first set- 
tled in the neighborhood, but immediately on the breaking 
out of the Revolution the Indians destroyed it, and moved to 
Ohio, and at this day there is not a trace of its existence left. 

The first white settlers in Warrior's Mark were the Rick- 
etts family. They were all wild, roving fellows, who loved 
the woods better than civilization; and their whole occupa- 
tion, over and above tilling a verj- small patch of land, ap- 
peared to be hunting for wild game. Their arrival was fol- 
lowed by two or three other families ; and when the Indian 
troubles commenced, the house of Ricketts was converted 
into a fortress, and the men turned their attention to pro- 
tecting the frontier. One of them — Captain Elijah Ricketts 
— became quite an active and prominent man. 

We have no record of any murder ever having been com- 
mitted in the immediate vicinity of Warrior's Mark. Several 
captives were taken from thence, either in 1777 or 1778, but 
were exchanged and found their way back ; we are, how- 
ever, without particulars, either as to their names, capture, 
or release. 

The three last Indians in the valley were Job Chillaway, 
a Delaware, Shaney John, a Mingo, and Captain Logan, a 
Cayuga. They were all friendly to the whites, and served 
the cause of liberty in the capacity of spies. 

Job Chillaway is represented by the late E. Bell, Esq., in 
his MS. as a tall, muscular man, with his ears cut so as to 
hang pendant like a pair of car-rings. He was employed as 
early as 1759 by the Colonial Government as a spy, and his 
name is frequently mentioned in the archives. Levi Trump, 
in writing to Governor Denny, from Fort Augusta, on April 
8, 1759, when the French were using their most powerful 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 325 

exertions to swerve the Six Nations from their fealty to the 
colony, says: — 

Job Chillaway, a Delaware Indian, arrived here on the 5th 
inst., and brought with him a message from a grand council of 
the Six Nations held near Onondaga, to King Teedyuscung, in- 
forming him that deputies from said council would soon be at 
Wyoming. On what errand they did not say ; but Job says he 
thinks it is his duty to inform his brothers what he knows of the 
affair: — that he was present at the opening of this council; 
which was by four chiefs, of different nations, singing the war 
song and handing round an uncommonly large war-belt ; that 
one of them, after some time, said : " What shall we do? Here 
is a hatchet from our fathers, to strike our brothers ; and here is 
another from our brothers to strike our fathers. I believe 'twill 
be best for us to do as we have done heretofore : that is, cast 
them both away." 

In 1763, Chillaway still remairied loyal to the colon}'-, al- 
though nearly all of his tribe had taken up the hatchet 
against the English. Colonel James Irvine, under date of 
November 23, 1763, writes from " Ensign Kerns," near Fort 
Allen, to John Penn, as follows .• — 

Sir: — On the 16th instant, Job Chillaway arrived here, being 
sent by Papunchay* to inform us that he and about twenty-five 
Indians (women and children included) were on their way from 
Weyalusing. The day after Job's arrival he delivered a string 
of wampum, and the following message in behalf of himself, Pa- 
punchay, John Curtis, &c., which he desired might be transmitted 
to your honor, viz : — 

" Brother : — 

" We are very glad that you have taken pity on us, according 
to the promises you made us since we had any correspondence 
together. 

" Brother, — We are glad to hear you have pointed out two ways 
to us, — one to our brother Sir William Johnson, the other to you. 
Our hearts incline toward you, the Governor of Philadelphia. 

* Papunchay was the chief of the last of the Delaware warriors who remained 
loyal, — the great body having, in 1763, gone over to the French. 



326 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

" Brother, — Take pity on us, and keep the road open, that we 
may pass without being hurt by your young men. 

" Brother, — Point out the place where you intend to settle us, 
and we shall be glad, let that be where it will." 

Job informed us that there were fifteen Muncy warriors, who, 
for three nights before he left Papunchay, encamped close by 
their encampment. How far they intended to proceed, or what 
were their intentions, he could not find out. As it was expected 
that Papunchay was near the frontiers. Colonel Clayton marched 
with fifty men, (mostly volunteers,) on the 20th inst., with Job 
Chillaway, in hopes of surprising the warriors. We were out 
three days without discovering either them or Papunchay. 
What hath detained the latter we know not. Job hath desired 
me to wait for them at this place a few days longer. On their 
arrival here, I purpose to conduct them to Philadelphia, unless 
I receive orders to the contrary from your honor. 

Whether Papunchay continued loyal after 1763 is not 
known ; but Chillaway was a spy, in the employ of Asher 
Clayton, at Lehigh Gap, as late as May, 1764. 

About 1768, he made his way to the Juniata Valley. He 
first located near the mouth of the Little Juniata; but as 
soon as settlements were made by the whites he went up 
Spruce Creek ; but there, too, the footprints of the white in- 
vader were soon seen, and he removed to the mountain, 
where hunting was good. He continued for many years 
after the Revolution to bring venison down into the settle- 
ments to trade off for flour and bread, hi his old age he 
exhibited a passion for strong drink, and by the white man's 
baneful jire-ivater he fell. He was found dead in his cabin, 
by some hunters, al^out the close of the last century. 

Of Shaney John not much is known. He came to the 
valley probably about the same time Chillaway did, and the 
two were boon-companions for man}'- years. Shaney John 
moved to the Indian town called the Bald Eagle's Nest, 
nearly opposite Milesburg, Centre County, where he died. 

The most prominent friendly Indian that ever resided in 
the valley, however, was Captain Logan. This, of course, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 327 

was not his proper name, but a title bestowed upon him by 
the settlers. He is represented as having been a noble and 
honorable Indian, warm in his attachment to a friend, but, 
like all Indians, revengeful in his character. A kindness 
and an insult alike remained indelibly stamped upon the 
book and page of his memory ; and to make a suitable re • 
turn for the former he would have laid down his life — shed 
the last drop of his heart's blood. He was a man of medium 
height and heavy frame notwithstanding which he was 
fleet of foot and ever on the move. 

He came to the valley before Chillaway did, and settled 
with his family in the little valley east of Martin Bell's Fur- 
nace, which is still known as Logan's Valley. He had pre- 
viously resided on the Susquehanna, where he was the cap- 
tain of a brave band of warriors; but, unfortunately, in 
some engagement with another tribe, he had an eye destroyed 
by an arrow from the enemy. This was considered a mark 
of disgrace, and he was deposed ; and it was owing to that 
cause that he abandoned his tribe and took up his residence 
in the Juniata Valley. 

One day, while hunting, he happened to pass the beautiful 
spring near the mouth of the Bald Eagle — now in the heart 
of Tyrone City. The favorable location for both hunting 
and fishing, as well as the charming scenery, fascinated Lo- 
gan; and he built a wigwam, immediately above the spring, 
to which he removed his family. 

Here he lived during the Revolutionary war, not alto- 
gether inactive, for his sympathies were on the side of liberty. 
During that time he formed a strong attachment to captain 
Ricketts, of Warrior's Mark, and they became fast friends. 
It was to Ricketts that Captain Logan first disclosed the plot 
of the tories under John Weston ; and Edward Bell gave it 
as his firm conviction that Logan was among the Indians 
who shot down Weston and his men on their arrival at Kit- 
taning. 

Although Logan had learned to read from the Moravian 
missionaries when quite a lad, he knew very little of the 



328 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

formula of land purchases ; so he failed to make a regular 
purchase of the spot on which his cabin stood, the conse- 
quence of which was that, after the war, some envious white 
man bought the land and warned the friendly savage off. 
Logan was too proud and haughty to contest the matter, or 
even bandy words with the intruder ; so he left, and located 
at Chichalacamoose, where Clearfield now stands, on the 
West Branch of the Susquehanna. 

Captain Logan continued visiting the valley, and espe- 
cially when any of his friends among the pioneers died. On 
such occasions he generally discarded his red and blue 
eagle-feathers, and appeared in a plain suit of citizen's 
clothes. 

But at length Logan came no more. The Great Spirit 
called him to a happier hunting-ground ; and all that is 
mortal of him — unless his remains have been ruthlessly 
torn from the bosom of mother earth — lies beneath the sod, 
near the mouth of Chichalacamoose Greek. 

It is to be regretted that more of his history has not been 
preserved, for, according to all accounts of him, he possessed 
many noble traits of character. Unlike Logan the Mingo 
chief. Captain Logan the Cayuga chief had no biographer 
like Thomas Jefferson to embellish the pages of history with 
his eloquence. Well may we say, " The evil that men do 
lives after them, while the good is oft interred with their 
bones." 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 329 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

CONCLUSION. 

USHING the light canoe on the lagoons in search of 
fish and lassoing the wild horse on the pampas of the 
South, chasing the buffalo on the boundless prairies 
and hunting the antlered stag in the dense forest of the 
West, is now the Indian's occupation ; and there he may be 
found, ever shunning the haunts of civilization. 

The Delaware Indians have been exterminated, and their 
very name {Lenni Lenape) blotted from existence, save where 
it appears upon the pages of history. 

Of the Shawnees, once the powerful warlike tribe that was 
known and feared from the seaboard to the lakes, but a few 
degenerate families reside in the Far AVest. 

Of the Great Confederation of the Iroquois but a remnant 
exists to remind us of its former greatness, its councils, its 
wars and its " talks." They reside in Western New York, in 
a semi-civilized but degraded state, and are but sorry repre- 
sentatives of the once proud and stately warriors, the crack 
of whose sharp and unerring rifles made the woods ring, and 
whose canoes danced upon the waves of the blue Juniata 
more than a hundred years ago. 

But they are all gone, and the bones of their ancestors are 
the only relics which they have left behind them. The hand 
of the same inscrutable Providence that suffered them to 
march as mighty conquerors from the West to the East, 
crushing out the existence of a weaker people in their trium- 
phant march, stayed them, blighted them in the noonday 
of their glory, and, like the receding waves of the sea, drove 
them back in the direction whence they came, where they 
scattered, and the ties which bound them together as tribes 
dissolved even as would ice beneath the rays of a tropical 
sun. 



330 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

The reader of the foregoing pages may sometimes think it 
strange that the savages committed so many depredations, 
with impunity, killed, scalped, or carried so many into cap- 
tivity, while but comparatively few of the marauders were 
destroyed. The cause of this can be easily explained. The sav- 
ages always made covert attacks. As will be remembered, very 
few massacres occured in the valley by open attack, — nearly 
all their depredations being committed while in ambuscade 
or when they had a foe completely in their power. Their 
incursions were always conducted with great caution, and no 
sooner did they strike a decisive blow than they disappeared. 
To guard against their ferocity was impossible ; to follow 
them was equally futile. The settlers were too few in num- 
ber to leave one force at home to guard against them and to 
send another in pursuit of them ; for, during the Revolution,, 
the belief was prevalent that a large force was ever ready to 
descend into the valley, and that the incursions of a few 
were only stratagems to lure the settlers to destruction by 
following them to where a large number were concealed. It 
was frequently proposed to send a strong force to waylay them 
in the gaps of the mountain ; but the settlers refused to trust 
the protection of their families to the raw militia sent by 
government to defend the frontier. 

In extremely aggravating cases, men, driven to despera- 
tion, followed the savages to the verge of the Indian settle- 
ments ; but they never got beyond the summit of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains without feeling as if they were walking 
directly into the jaws of death, for no one could otherwise 
than momentarily expect a shower of rifle-balls from the 
enemy in ambuscade. The want of men, ammunition, and 
other things, were known to and taken advantage of by the 
Indians ; but when an abundance of these things was brought 
to the frontier they prudently kept out of the way, for their 
sagacity instinctively taught them what the}^ might expect 
if they fell into the hands of the settlers. But it may here 
be remarded that the savage mode of warfare, which by them 
was deemed fair and honorable, — such as scalping or maim- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 331 

ing women and children, — was held in the utmost horror 
and detestation by people who professed to be Christians; 
and they equally detest shooting from ambuscade as an act 
fit for savages alone to be guilty of. It was only the more 
reckless and desperate of the community that would consent 
to fight the savages after their own mode of warfare. 

It is, therefore, but a simple act of justice to the memory 
of the pioneers to say that the savages did not go unpunished 
through any fear or lack of zeal on their part. Their con- 
centrated energies were used to check the frequent invasions 
and many of them spent their last dollar to protect the de- 
fenceless frontier ; yet it is to be deeply regretted that in those 
primitive days they lacked the knowledge of properly apply- 
ing the power within their reach. 

But they, too, are all gone ! " Each forever in his narrow 
cell is laid." Beneath their kindred dust the rude forefathers 
of the valley sleep. We have endeavored to give a succinct 
account of the trials and sufferings of many of them ; but, 
doubtless, much remains untold, which the recording angel 
alone has possession of. While we reflect upon the fact that 
it was through the privations and hardships they endured 
that ^ve enjoy the rich blessings of the beautiful and teeming 
valley, let us hope that they are enjoying a peace they knew 
not on earth, in that valley " where the wicked cease from 
troubling and the weary are at rest." 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



APPENDIX. 



THE VALLEY AS IT IS. 

(j ^»L HE preceding pages fulfil the original intention of present- 
3 1 . ing to the public, as far as possible, a " History of the 
^Y Early Settlement of the Juniata Valley," Its modern 
history, fraught with rare incidents, is left to the pen of some 
future enterprising historian, who may collect the incidents ne- 
cessary to construct it when but a moiety of the generation (still 
numerous) who know the valley and its multifarious changes 
for half a century past shall be dwellers in our midst. Still, 
such prospect shall not deter us from giving a synopsis of the 
history of the valley as it is, not promising, however, to make 
the record complete, or even notice in detail the growth and 
progress of the valley during the last thirty years. 

When the early settlers were apprised of the fact that some 
of the more enterprising contemplated cutting a pack-horse road 
over the Alleghany mountains, through Blair's Gap, they shook 
their heads ominously, and declared that the task was one which 
could not be accomplished. But it was accomplished; and, 
after its completion, it was not many years until the pack-horse 
track was transformed into a wagon-road. People were well 
satisfied with this arrangement; for no sooner was there a good 
road along the river than some daring men commenced taking 
produce to the East, by the use of arks, from the Frankstown 
Branch, the Raystown Branch, and the Little Juniata. With 
these advantages, a majority of the inhabitants labored under 
the impression that they were keeping pace with the age; but 
others, endowed with a fair share of that progressive spirit which 
characterizes the American people, commenced agitating the 
project of making a turnpike between Huntingdon and Blairs- 
ville. The old fogies of the day gave this innovation the cold 
shoulder, spoke of the immense cost, and did not fail to count 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 333 

the expense of travelling upon such a road. But little were 
their murmurings heeded by the enterprising men of the valley. 
The fast friend of the turnpike was Mr. Blair, of Blair's Gap' 
west of Hollidaysburg. His influence was used in the halls of 
the Legislature until he injured his political standing; neverthe- 
less, he persevered until the company was chartered, and he 
soon had the satisfaction of seeing the turnpike road completed. 
Once built, it was found to be rather a desirable institution, and 
its value soon removed all opposition to it. 

Anon came the startling proposition of building a canal along 
the Juniata, and a railroad over the Alleghany Mountains, to 
connect the waters of the Juniata and the Conemaugh. To 
men of limited information the project seemed vague and ill- 
defined ; while knowing old fogies shook their heads, and de- 
clared that a canal and turnpike both could not be sustained, 
and that, if the former could accomplish the wonders claimed 
for it, the teams that carried goods between Philadelphia and 
Pittsburg in the short space of from fifteen to twenty days 
would be compelled to suspend operations ! But the opposition 
to the canal was too insignificant to claim notice ; and when the 
building of it was once commenced an improvement mania 
raged. The stately and learned engineer, Moncure Robinson, 
was brought all the way from England to survey the route for 
the Portage Road. Like a very colossus of roads, he strode 
about the mountain, and his nod and beck, like that of imperial 
Csesar upon his throne, was the law, from which there was no 
appeal. By dint of long labor, and at a vast expense to the 
commonwealth, he demonstrated clearly that a road could be 
built across the mountain, and rendered practicable by the use 
of ten inclined planes. Alas ! for the perishable nature of glory ! 
Moncure Robinson had hardly time to reach his home, and 
boast of the honor and fame he achieved in the New World, 
before a Yankee engineer discovered that a railroad could be 
built across the Alleghany Mountain without the use of a single 
plane ! Of course, then he was thought a visionary, and that 
not a quarter of a century ago ; yet now we have two railroads 
crossing the mountain without the use of a plane, and the cir- 
cumstance appears to attract no other remark than that of in- 
effable disgust at the old fogies who could not make a road to 



334 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

cross the Apalachian chain without the tedious operation of 
being hoisted up and lowered down by stationary engines. 

The era of " flush times'' in the valley must have been when 
the canal was building. Splendid fortunes were made, and vast 
sums of money sunk, by the wild speculations which followed 
the advent of the contractors and the sudden rise of property 
lying along the river. As an instance of the briskness of the 
times in the valley when the canal was building, an old settler in- 
forms us that Frankstown at that time contained fourteen stores, 
five taverns, and four roulette tables. At present, we believe, it 
contains but two or three stores, one tavern, and no gambling 
apparatus to relieve the reckless of their surplus change. 

The completion of the canal was the great event of the day, 
and the enthusiasm of the people could scarcely be kept within 
bounds when the ponderous boats commenced ploughing the 
ditch. This will be readily believed by any who will read the 
papers published at the time. From a paper printed in Lewis- 
town on the 5th of November, 1829, we learn that a packet-boat 
arrived at place from Mifflin on Thursday previous, and departed 
again next day, having on board a number of the members of 
the Legislature, as well as citizens and strangers. The editor, 
in speaking of the departure, enthusiastically says : " The boat 
was drawn by two white horses, when she set ofl" in fine style, 
with the ' star spangled banner' flying at her head, and amid the 
roar of cannon, the shouts of the populace, and the cheering 
music of the band which was on board." Reader, this was a 
little over twenty-six years ago ; and the jubilee was over a packet 
capable of accomplishing the mighty task of carrying some forty 
or fifty passengers at the rate of about four miles an hour. 

The climax of joy, however, appears to have been reached by 
the editor of the Huntingdon Gazette, on the 15th of July, 1831, 
when he became jubilant over the launch of a canal boat, and 
gave vent to the following outburst : — " What ! a canal boat 
launched in the vicinity of Huntingdon ! Had any one predicted 
an event of this kind some years back, he, in all probability, 
would have been yclept a wizard, or set down as beside himself!" 

These gushings of intensified joy, although they serve to amuse 
now, do not fail to convey a useful lesson. Let us not glory too 
much over the demon scream of the locomotive as it comes rat- 
tling through the valley, belching forth fire and smoke, or the 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 335 

miraculous telegraph which conveys messages from one end of 
the Union to the other with the rapidity with which a lover s 
sigh would be wafted from the Indies to the Pole ; for who knows 
but that the succeeding generation, following in the footsteps 
made by the universal law of progress, will astonish the world 
with inventions not dreamed of in our philosophy, which will 
throw our electric-telegraphs and railroads forever in the shade? 

For eighteen years, with the exception of the winter months, 
the canal packet held sway in the Juniata Valley, carrying its 
average of about thirty passengers a day from the East to the 
West, and vice versa. When hoar old winter placed an em- 
bargo upon the canal craft, travel used to dwindle down to 
such a mere circumstance that a rickety old two-horse coach 
could easily carry all the passengers that offered. Who among 
us that has arrived at the age of manhood does not recollect 
the packet-boat, with its motley group of passengers, its snail 
pace, its consequential captain, and its non-communicative 
steersman, who used to wake the echoes with the " to-to-to-to- 
toit " of his everlasting horn and his hoarse cry of " lock ready ?" 
The canal-packet was unquestionably a great institution in its 
day and generation, and we remember it with emotions almost 
akin to veneration. Right well do we remamber, too, how con- 
tentedly people sat beneath the scorching rays of a boiling sun 
upon the packet, as it dragged its slow length along the sinuous 
windings of the canal at an average speed of three and a half or 
four miles an hour ; and yet the echo of the last packet-horn has 
scarcely died away when we see the self-same people standing 
upon a station-house platform, on the verge of despair because 
the cars happened to be ten minutes behind time, or hear them 
calling down maledictions dire upon the head of some offending 
conductor who refuses to jeopardize the lives of his passengers by 
running faster than thirty miles an hour ! 

At length, after the canal had enjoyed a sixteen years' triumph, 
people began to consider it a " slow coach ;" and without much 
debate, the business-men of Philadelphia resolved upon a rail- 
rord between Harrisburg and Pittsburg. The project had hardly 
been fairly determined upon before the picks and shovels of the 
" Corkonians " and " Fardowns " were brought into requisition ; 
but, strange to say, this giant undertaking struck no one as being 
any thing extraordinary. It was looked upon as a matter of 



336 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

course, and the most frequent remarks it gave rise to were com- 
plaints that the making of the road did not progress rapidly 
enough to keep pace with the progress of the age. And, at length 
when it was completed, the citizens of Lewistown did not greet 
the arrival of the first train with drums, trumpets, and the roar 
of cannon ; neither did any Huntingdon editor exclaim, in a 
burst of enthusiasm, on the arrival of the train, " What ! nine 
railroad cars, with six hundred passengers, drawn through Hunt- 
ingdon by a locomotive ! If any person had predicted such a 
result some years ago, he would have been yclpet a wizard, or 
set down as one beside himself.''^ 

The Pennsylvania Railroad once finished, although it failed 
to create the surprise and enthusiam excited by the canal, did 
not fail to open up the valley and its vast resources. Independ- 
ent of the great advantage of the road itself, let us see what fol- 
lowed in the wake of this laudable enterprise. The railroad 
created the towns of Altoona, Fostoria, Tipton, and Tyrone; 
its presence caused the building of three plank roads, and the 
opening of extensive coal and lumber operations in the valley 
and kindred enterprises that might never have been thought 
of. Nor is this all. A rage for travel by railroad has been 
produced by the Pennsylvania Company ; and there is good 
reason to believe that it will increase until at least three more 
roads tap the main artery in the Juniata Valley, — the rail- 
road from Tyrone to Clearfield, from the same place to Lock 
Haven, and from Spruce Creek to Lewisburg. These roads 
will unquestionably be built, and at no remote period. The 
Pennsylvania Road has now facilities for doing business equal 
to those of any road of the same-length in the world ; that, when 
a second track is completed, it is destined, for some years at 
least, to enjoy a monopoly of the carrying trade between Pitts- 
burg and Philadelphia. Much as we regret it, for the sake 
of the Commonwealth which expended her millions without any 
thing like an adequate return, the canal is rapidly falling into 
disuse, and we see, with deep regret, that it has become entirely 
too slow for the age in which we live. With all the vitality 
forced into it that can be, we confess we can see no opposition 
in it to the road but such as is of the most feeble kind ; yet all 
will agree that this opposition, trifling as it is, should continue 
to exist until such a time as other routes shall be opened be- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 337 

tween these points, and healthy competion established. But let 
us not dwell too much upon our modes of transit through the 
valley, lest the historian of a hundred years hence will find our 
remarks a fitting theme for ridicule, and laugh at us because we 
speak in glowing terms of a single railroad, and that road with 
but a single track for more than half its distance ! 

In order to give the reader a little insight into the progress 
which has been made in the valley, let us turn statistician for a 
time, with the understanding, however, that we shall not be 
held responsible for the accuracy of dates. 

Less than twenty-six years ago, George Law sat upon the left 
bank of the Juniata, two miles west of Williamsburg, cutting 
stones for building two locks at that place. Now the aforesaid 
Law is supposed to be worth the snug little sum of six millions 
of dollars, and not long since was an aspirant for the presiden- 
tial chair! 

Thirty years ago, when Frankstown was a place of some note, 
Hollidaysburg contained but a few scattered cabins. In fact, 
twenty years ago it was " to fortune and to fame unknown ; yet 
it now contains a population (including that of Gaysport) that 
will not fall much short of four thousand. 

Less than twenty-five years ago, Dr. P. Shoenberger, while re- 
turning from Baltimore with $15,000 in cash, fell in with the 
celebrated robber Lewis on the Broad Top Mountain. The in- 
tention of Lewis, as he afterward acknowledged, was to rob him ; 
but the doctor, although he was unacquainted with his fellow- 
traveller, had his suspicions awakened, and, by shrewd manoeu- 
vering, succeeded in giving him the slip. Had the $15,000 in 
question fallen into the hands of the robber. Dr. Shoenberger 
would have been bankrupt, and the probability is that he would 
have lived and died an obscure individual. Instead of that, 
however, the money freed him from his embarrassments, and he 
died, but a few years ago, worth between four and five millions 
of dollars — more than one-half of which he accumulated by 
manufacturing iron in the Valley of the Juniata, 

Less than sixteen years ago, a gentleman named Zimmerman 
was a bar-keeper at the hotel of Walter Graham, Esq., at Yellow 
Springs, in Blair county, afterward a "mud-boss" on the Penn- 
sylvania Canal, and subsequently a teamster at Alleghany Fur- 

22 



338 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

nace. At the present day the said Samuel Zimmerman owns 
hotels, palaces, a bank of issue, farms, stocks, and other prop- 
erty, at Niagara Falls, in Canada, which swell his income to 
$150,000 per annum. He is but thirty-eight years of age. Should 
he live the length of time allotted to man, and his wealth steadily 
increase, at the end of three score-and-ten years he can look upon 
ordinary capitalists, who have only a few millions at command, 
as men of limited means. 

Let it not be presumed, however, that we notice these capi- 
talists from any adoration of their wealth or homage to the men, 
but merely because their history is partially identified with the 
valley, and to show in what a singular manner the blind god- 
dess will sometimes lavish her favors ; for hundreds of men 
without money, but with brighter intellects and nobler impulses 
than ever were possessed by Zimmerman, Law, or Shoenberger, 
have gone down to the grave ''unwept, unhonored, and unsung," 
in the Juniata Valley. Neither will the soughing of the west 
wind, as it sweeps through the valley, disturb their repose any 
more than it will that of the millionaires when resting from "life's 
fitful fever " in their splendid mausoleums. 

Less than ten years ago a railroad from Huntingdon to Broad 
Top was deemed impracticable. Since then, or, we may say, 
within the last four years, a substantial railroad has been built, 
reaching from the borough of Huntingdon to Hopewell, in Bed- 
ford county, a distance of thirty-one miles ; and the cars are now 
engaged in bringing coal from a region which, but a few years 
ago, was unexplored. In addition to the main track, there is a 
branch, six miles in length, extending to Shoup's Run. The 
coal-field contains eighty square miles of territory ; and from the 
openings made at Shoup's Run and Six Mile Run semi-bitumi- 
nous coal has been taken, the quality of which cannot be surpassed 
by any coal-field in the world. Along the line of the road quite 
a number of villages have sprung up. The first is Worthington, 
some thirteen miles from Huntingdon. The next is Saxton, 
twenty-six miles from Huntingdon. Coalmont is the name of a 
flourishing village growing up on Shoup's Run, about a mile 
below the lowest coal-veins yet opened. Barret is located about 
two miles farther up ; and Broad Top City is located upon the 
summit of the mountain, at the terminus of the Shoup's Run 
Branch, at which place a large three-story stone hotel has been 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



339 



built, and a number of lots disposed of, on which purchasers are 
bound to build during the summer of 1856. 

Less than eight years ago the author of these pages, while on 
a gunning expedition, travelled over the ground where Altoona 
now stands. It was then almost a barren waste. A few fields, 
a solitary log farm house and its out-buildings, and a school- 
house, alone relieved the monotony of the scene ; yet now upon 
this ground stands a town with between three and four thousand 
inhabitants, where the screams of the engine is heard at all 
hours of the day and night, — where the roar of fires, the clang 
of machinery and the busy hum of industry never cease from 
the rising to the setting of the sun, and where real estate com- 
mands a price that would almost seem fabulous to those not 
acquainted with the facts. But of this enough. 

Let us now proceed to examine the products of the valley. 
The lower end of it is a gain-growing region, the upper an iron 
producing country ; and it is owing to the minerial resources 
alone that the valley maintains the position it does and boasts 
of the wealth and population it now possesses. The Juniata 
iron has almost a worldwide reputation; yet we venture to say 
that many of our own neighbors know little about the immense 
amount of capital and labor employed in its manufacture. The 
following is a list of the iron establishments in the valley: 



BEDFORD COUNTY. 



I>oeation. Owner. 

. Middle Woodbury . . John W. Duncan. 
. Hopewell John King & Co. 



Name. 
Bloomfield Furnace . 
Lemnos " 

Lemnos Forge " " " 

Bedford " " " " 

Bedford Foundry and Ma- 
chine shop Bedford Michael Bannon. 

Keagy's Foundry Woodbury Snowden & Blake. 

West Providence Foundry . Bloody Run .... George Baughman. 





BLAIR COUNTY. 




Alleghany Furnace . . . 


. Logan township . . 


. Elias Baker. 


Blair " . . . 


i( It 


. H. N. Burroughs. 


Elizabeth '' . . . 


. Antes " . . 


. Martin Bell. 


Bald Eagle " ... 


. Snyder " . . 


. Lyon, Shorb & Co. 


Etna Furnace and Forge . 


. Catharine " . . 


. Isett, Keller & Co. 


Springfield Furnace . . . 


. Woodberry " 


. D. Good & Co. 



340 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



Name. 
Rebecca Furnace 
Sarah " 

Gap 

Frankstowa '' 
Harriet '' 

HolUdaysburg Furnace 
Chimney Rock " 
Gaysport " 

Portage Works (rolling-mill 

&c.) 

Maria Forges (two) 
Lower Maria Forge 
Gap " 

Elizabeth " 

Tyrone Forges (two) 
Cove Forge . . . 
Franklin Forge . . 
Cold Spring Forge 
Alleghany " 

HoUidaysburg Foundry 

Machine-shop 
Gaysport Foundry and 

chine-shop .... 
Tyrone Foundry . . 
Williamsburg Foundry 
Martinsburg " 

Penn'a Railroad " 
Duncansville " 
Axe and Pick factory 



Location. Owner. 

, Houston township . . E. H. Lytle. 
, Greenfield " . . D. McCormick. 

Juniata " . . E. F. Shoenberger. 

Frankstown . . . . A. & D. Moore. 

Alleghany township . Blair Co. Coal & Iron Co. 

Gaysport Watson, White & Co. 

HoUidaysburg . . . Gardener,Osterloh&Co. 

Gaysport Smith & Caldwell. 

Duncansville .... J. Higgins & Co. 

Juniata township . . J. W. Duncan. 

" " . . D. McCormick. 

" " . . Mussleman & Co. 

Antes " . . John Bell. 

Snyder " . . Lyon, Shorb & Co. 

Woodberry " . . J. Royer. 

" " . . D. H. Royer. 

Antes " . . Lsett & Co. 

Alleghany " . . E. H. Lytle. 



M&- 



HoUidaysburg 



J. R. McFarlane & Co. 



Gaysport McLanahan,Watson&Co. 

Tyrone City J. W. Mattern & Co. 

Williamsburg .... Loncer & Hileman. 

Martinsburg Crawford & Morrow. 

Altooua Penna. Railroad Co. 

Duncansville .... Mr. Gibboney. 
Alleghany township J. Colclesser. 



HUNTINGDON COUNTY. 



. Franklin township . 
. Jackson '' 



Huntingdon Furnace 

Monroe " 

Greenwood " ... " 

Rough and Ready Furnace . Hopewell 

Paradise Furnace Tod 

Mill Creek " Brady 

Edward " Shirley 

RockhiU " Cromwell 

Matilda " and Forge. Springfield 
Colcraine Forges (two) . . Franklin 
Stockdale Forge " 



Elizabeth 



. G. K. «t J. H. Shoenberger. 

. George W. Johnson & Co. 

. A. & J. Wright. 

. Wood, Watson & Co. 

. Trexler & Co. 

. Irvin, Green & Co. 

. Beltzhoover & Co. 

. lsett, Wigton &. Co. 

. Shiffler & Son. 

. Lyon, Shorb & Co. 

. John S. Lsett. 

. G. K. & J. H. Shoenberger. 

. Martin Gates's heirs. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



341 



Name. Location. 

Rolling Mill and Puddling 

Forge Porter township, 

Juniata Rolling Mill and 

Forge West " 

Barre Forge Porter " 

Alexandria Foundry J. Grafius. 



Owner. 

, S. Hatfield & Son. 

B. Lorenz, (Lessee.) 
Joseph Green & Co. 



Water Street 

Spruce Creek 

Petersburg 

Huntingdon 

Shirlesyburg 

Eagle 



Job Plympton. 

H. L. Trawly. 

H. Orlady. 

J. M. Cunningham & Co. 

John Lutz. 

Tod township . . . . J. & D. Hamilton. 



MIFFLIN COUNTY. 

Lewistown Furnace .... Lewistown .... Etting, Graff & Go. 
Hope " .... Granville township . W. W. Happer & Co. 

Matilda " .... Wayne " . W. Righter. 

Brookland " ... . McVeytown . . . . Huntingdon, Robinson 4; Co. 
" Rolling Mill . . " .... " " " 

Freedom Forge Derry township ... J. A. Wright & Co. 

Juniata Foundary and Ma- 
chine-shop ...... Lewistown Zeigler & Willis. 

Logan Foundry " A. Marks & Co. 

McVeytown Foundry . • . McVeytown .... Faxon & Co. 

Axe Factory Near Reedsville . . A. Mann. 

Plough Foundry " " . . J. & M. Taylor. 

In addition to these, there may be some few foundries in Juni- 
ata and Perry counties, but no furnaces or forges in that portion 
of them which lies in the valley proper. 

It way be as well here to mention that the furnace of Wat- 
son, White & Co. is just completed; the Chimney Rock Furnace 
will be completed during the summer of 1856, as well as the 
furnace of Messrs. Smith & Caldwell, in Gaysport. These three 
furnaces follow the discovery of immense fossil ore-veins imme- 
diately back of Hollidaysburg, which are supposed to extend, in 
irregular strata, from the river east as far as the basin extends. 
In addition to this, in the Loop, — a basin lying between points 
of the Cove Mountain, south of Frankstown, — mines capable of 
the most prolific yield have also been opened. The ore smelted 
with coke, is said to produce the best iron in market, and com- 



342 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

mands a ready sale at excellent prices. From the discoveries 
of ore deposits already raade, and those that will follow future 
explorations, it is but reasonable to infer that, during the next 
four or five years, the number of furnaces will be considerably 
augmented ; and at this time there is a project on foot for build- 
ing an extensive rolling-mill and nail-factory at Hollidaysburg. 

The foregoing list of iron establishments numbers seventy- 
three, (and we are by no means certain that we have enumerated 
all,) and employ some six or seven thousand men, directly or 
indirectly, and the capital invested cannot possibly fall far short 
of five millions of dollars. And all this vast source of wealth 
and happiness is drawn from the bosom of mother earth in a 
valley a little over one hundred miles in length. We say it 
boldly, and challenge contradiction, that the iron-mines of the 
Juniata Valley have yielded more clear profit, and entailed more 
blessings upon the human family, than ever the same extent of 
territory did in the richest diggings of California. 

But, great as the valley is, unquestionably half of its resources 
have not yet been developed. Along the base of the mountain 
are vast seams of coal that have never been opened, and forests 
of the finest timber, which only await capital and enterprise to 
show the real extent of our coal and lumber region. Of the ex- 
tent of the ore-fields of the valley no man can form any concep- 
tion. Time alone can tell. Yet we are not without hope that 
ore will be found in such quantities, before the present genera- 
tion shall have passed away, as shall make the valley a second 
Wales in its iron operations. 

From De Bow's Census Compendium of 1850 we copy the fol- 
lowing, set down as an accurate statement of the amount of 
capital, hands employed, and amount produced, in all the coun- 
ties of the valley, by manufacturers, in that year : — 

capital. Hands employed. Amount produced 

Bedford $21-2,500 427 > $561,339 

Blair, 1,0(55,730 1,383 1,385,526 

Huntingdon, 1,335,525 1,218 1,029,860 

Mifflin, 129,225 300 310,452 

Juniata, 309,300 182 4()7,550 

Perry 330,992 (i09 845,360 

$3,389,282 4,119 $4,600,087 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



343 



This is manifestly an error; for we are satisfied that more cap- 
ital and hands were employed in the iron business alone in 1850, 
leaving out Perry county, only a portion of which belongs to the 
valley proper. The gatherers of the statistics evidently did not 
enumerate the wood choppers, charcoal burners, teamsters, ore 
diggers and others, who labor for furnaces. Yet, granting that 
the statistics of the manufactures of the valley, as given in the 
census report, are correct, and we deduct a tenth for manufac- 
tures other than iron, we are still correct ; for since the new fur- 
naces, forges, and foundries have been built, the capacity of old 
ones greatly enlarged, and many that were standing idle in 1850 
are now in successful operation. In Altoona alone, since then, 
600 hands find steady employment in working up the Juniata 
iron at the extensive machine-shops and foundries of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad Company. 

The following shows the population in 1840 and in 1850, to- 
gether with the number of dwellings : 

Countiea. Pop. in 1840. Pop. in 1850. Dwellings. 

Bedford 29,335 23,052 3,896 

Blair, (formed out of 
Huntingdon and Bed- 
ford, 1846) 21,777 3,718 

Huntingdon 35,484 24,786 4,298 

Mifflin 13,092 14,980 2,591 

Juniata 11,090 13,029 2,168 

Perry 17,096 20,088 3,412 

Total 106,085 117,712 20,083 

If we add to Bedford the 7567 inhabitants taken from it to 
form Fulton county, we shall find that the population increased 
19,192 in the valley, between 1840 and 1850. This may be rated 
as an ordinary increase. To the same increase, between 1850 
and 1860, we may add the extraordinary increase caused by the 
building of the Pennsylvania and the Broad Top Railroads, 
which, we think, will increase the population to double what it 
was in 1840 by the time the next census is taken. 

The number of dwellings in the valley, it will be observed, 
amounted, in 1850, to 20,083. Since then, five hundred build- 
ings have been erected in Altoona, one hundred and fifty in 



344 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Tyrone, five hundred in the towns and villages along the line of 
the Broad Top Road, a hundred along the line of the Pennsyl- 
vania Road, while the towns of Hollidaysburg, Huntingdon, 
McVeytown, Lewistown, Mifflin and Newport, and, in fact, all 
the villages in the valley, have had more or less buildings erected 
during the past five years. A corresponding number erected 
during the next five years will, we venture to predict, bring the 
census return of buildings up to 40,000. 

Let it also be remembered that the increase of population be- 
tween 1840 and 1850 was made when the mania for moving to 
the West was at its height ; when more people from the Juniata 
located in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, than will 
leave us during the next twenty years, unless some unforeseen 
cause should transpire that would start a fresh tide of western 
emigration. The fact that many who have taken up their resi- 
dences in the Far West would most willingly return, if they 
could, has opened the eyes of the people, in a measure ; and 
many have become convinced that a man who cannot live and 
enjoy all the comforts of life on a fine Pennsylvania farm can do 
little better upon the prairies of Iowa or the ague-shaking swamps 
of Indiana. As an evidence that money may be made at home 
here by almost any pursuit, attended with perseverance, we may 
incidentally mention that a gentleman near Frankstown, 
who owns a small farm, — probably one hundred and sixty 
acres, — not only kept his family comfortably during the last 
year, but netted $1400 clear profit, being half the amount of the 
original purchase. Is there a farm of the same size in Iowa that 
produced to its owner so large a sum over and above all expenses ? 
But, m.ore than this, we can safely say, without fear of contradic- 
tion, that every acre of cultivated land in the Juniata Valley has> 
during the last two years, netted as much as the same amount of 
land in the most fertile and productive Western State in the 
Union. A large proportion of the people who have located in 
the West, actuated by that ruling passion of the human family — 
the accumulation of money, (mostly for dissipated heirs to 
squander,) — arc engaged in speculating in lands. Now, we 
venture to say that the increase in the price of some of the lands 
of the Juniata Valley will vie with the rapid rise in the value of 
Western lands ; and we are prepared to maintain our assertions 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 345 

I 

with the proof. Some years ago a gentleman in Huntingdon 
county took a tract of timber-land, lying at the base of the 
mountain in Blair county, for a debt of some four or five hun- 
dred dollars. The debt was deemed hopelessly bad, and the 
land little better than the debt itself. Right willingly would the 
new owner have disposed of it for a trifle, but no purchaser 
could be found. Anon the railroad was built, and a number of 
steam saw-mills were erected on lands adjoining the tract in 
question, when the owner found a ready purchaser at $2500 
cash. A gentleman in Gaysport, in the summer of 1854, pur- 
chased twelve acres of ground back of Hollidaysburg for seven 
hundred dollars. This sum he netted by the sale of the timber 
taken off it preparatory to breaking it for cultivation. After 
owning it just one year, he disposed of it for $3000! A gentle- 
man in Hollidaysburg, in the fall of 1854, bought three hundred 
and eighty acres of ground, adjoining the Frankstown Ore Bank, 
for three hundred and eighty dollars. The undivided half of 
this land was sold on the 22d of February, 1856, for $2900, 
showing an increase in value of about 1400 per cent, in fifteen 
months ; and yet the other half could not be purchased for 
$5000. By this the land speculator will see that it is not neces- 
sary for him to go the Far West to pursue his calling while real 
estate rises so rapidly in value at home. 

Within a few years past, the Juniata country has been made 
a summer resort by a portion of the denizens of Philadelphia, 
Baltimore, and Pittsburg. From either city it is reached after 
but a few hours' travel. The romantic scenery, the invigorating 
air, and the pure water of the mountains, are attractions that 
must eventually outweigh those of fashionable watering-places, 
with their customary conventional restraints. The hotels erected 
along the line of of the Pennsylvania Railroad are admirably 
adapted, and have been built with a view to accommodate city- 
folks who wish to ruralize during the summer months. Promi- 
nent among them we may mention the Patterson House, kept 
by General Bell ; the House, kept by Mrs. C. C. Hemphill, at the 
Lewistown station ; the Keystone Hotel, at Spruce Creek, kept 
by Colonel R. F. Haslett; the City Hotel, Tyrone City ; the large 
hotel at Tipton ; the Logan House, in Altoona; the two large 
hotels lately erected at Cfesson, by Dr. Jackson, (capable of ac- 



846 ■ HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

commodating five hundred guests;) and Riffle's Mansion House 
at the Summit. In addition to these, all the larger towns con- 
tain excellent hotels. In short, we may say that the hotels of 
the valley, collectively, cannot be surpassed by country hotels 
anywhere. 

The valley is not without its natural curiosities to attract the 
attention of the man of leisure. The Arch Spring and the Cave 
in Sinking Valley are probably pmong the greatest curiosities to 
be found in any country. The spring gushes from an opening 
arched by nature in such force as to drive a mill, and then sinks 
into the earth again. The subterranean passage of the water 
can be traced for some distance by pits or openings, when it 
again emerges, runs along the surface among rocky hills, until 
it enters a large cave, having the appearance of an immense 
tunnel. This cave has been explored as far as it will admit — 
some four hundred feet, — where there is a large room, and where 
the water falls into a chasm or vortex, and finds a subterranean 
passage through Canoe Mountain, and emerges again at its 
southern base, along which it winds down to Water Street and 
empties into the river. 

Another of these subterranean wonders is a run back of Ty- 
rone City, where it sinks into the base of a limestone ridge, 
passes beneath a hill, and makes its appearance again at the 
edge of the town. 

The most remarkable spring, however, is one located on the 
right bank of the river, some seven miles below Hollidaysburg. 
The peculiar feature about this spring is the fact that it ebbs 
and flows with the same regularity the tides do. The admirer 
of natural curiosities may arrive at it when it is brimming full 
or running over with the purest of limestone water; yet in a 
short time the water will commence receding, and within an 
hour or two the hole in the ground alone remains. Then a 
rumbling noise is heard up the hill-side, and soon the water 
pours down until the spring is again overflowed. 

In the town of Williamsburg, on the property of John K. NeflF, 
Esq., there is a remarkable spring. It throws out a volume of 
water capable of operating a first-class mill, together with other 
machinery, although the distance from the spring to the river 
does not exceed the eighth of a mile. 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 347 

At Spang's Mill, in Blair county, is by far the largest spring 
in the upper end of the valley. It has more the appearance of a 
small subterranean river breaking out at the hill-side than that 
of a spring. It is about three hundred yards long, varying in 
width from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. The 
water has a bluish-green tinge, and is so exceedingly pure that a 
drop of it placed under a microscope would show fewer animal- 
culse than a drop of river-water would after being filtered. For- 
merly it contained thousands upon thousands of the finest brook 
trout ; but of late years the number has been considerably dimin- 
ished by the sportsmen who could obtain permission from Mr. 
Spang to entice them from their element with the tempting fly. 
A hundred feet from what is considered the end of the spring, 
there is a large grist-mill driven by its waters, which empty into 
the eastern reservoir of the Pennsylvania Canal, after traversing 
a distance of about three miles. Within two miles form the head 
of the spring, its waters furnish motive-power to two grist-mills, 
a saw-mill, and four forges. 

As a singular circumstance in connection with this subject, we 
may mention that, within the memory of some of the older in- 
habitants, a considerable stream of water ran through the upper 
end of Middle Woodbury township, Bedford county; but the 
spring at the head of it gave out, as well as several other springs 
which fed it, and now scarcely any traces of it remain. 

In facilities for teaching the rising generation the counties 
composing the valley are not behind any of their sister counties 
in the State, as the Common School Report for 1855 proves. 

Ever mindful of the Giver of all good and his manifold mercies 
to mankind, the people of the Juniata region have reared fully as 
many temples to the worship of Almighty God as the same num- 
ber of inhabitants have done in any land where the light of the 
gospel shines. The following table, compiled from the census 
statistics, shows the number of churches in 1850: — 



348 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



SECTS. 



m 



m 



m 



>> -; 



(^ 



Baptist 

Christian .... 
Congregational . . 
Episcopal . . . . 
Free . . . • ■ • 

Friends 

German Keformed 
Lutheran .... 
Mennonite .... 
Methodist . . . . 
Moravian .... 
Presbyterian . . . 
Roman Catholic . 

Tanker 

Union 

Minor Sects . . . 



2 

7 
14 



10 

2 
6 
1 



Total 



52 



5 
10 
3 
6 
2 
6 
3 
1 



22 
1 

13 
1 
1 
>2 



42 



60 



1 

11 

1 



9 

7 

10 



10 



14 
1 



32 



27 



47 



21 
1 
1 
3 
3 
2 

27 

51 
3 

67 
7 

54 
6 
2 
9 
3 



260 



During the six years that have elapsed since the above sta- 
tistics were taken, quite a number of new churches have been 
erected — probably not less than twenty. Of this number four 
have been erected in Altoona and three in Tyrone City alone. 

And now, worthy reader, our voluntarily-assumed task is 
ended. As we glance over the pages of our work, we are made 
painfully aware of the fact that many of the narratives given are 
too brief to be very interesting. This is owing altogether to the 
fact that we chose to give unvarnished accounts as we received 
them, broken and unconnected, rather than a connected history 
garnished with drafts from the imagination. In thus steering 
clear of the shoals of fiction, — on which so many historians have 
wrecked, — we conceive that we have only done our duty to those 
who suggested to us this undertaking. 

We are strongly impressed with the idea that a history of the 
early settlement of the valley should have been written a quarter 
of a century ago. Then it might have made a volume replete 
with all the stirring incidents of the times, for at that period 
many of the actors in the trials and struggles endured were still 
among us, and could have given details ; while we were com- 
pelled to glean our information from persons on the brink of the 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 349 

grave, whose thoughts dwelt more upon the future than on the 
past. 

The modern history of the valley will be a subject for the pen 
of the historian a quarter of a century hence. We have given 
him a hint of some occurrences during the last half century ; 
and for further particulars, during the next twenty-five years, 
we would refer him to the twenty newspapers published in the 
seven counties, from whose columns alone he will be able to 
compile an interesting history, sparing himself the trouble of 
searching among books, papers, and old inhabitants for incidents 
that unfortunately, never were recorded. 

The future of the valley no man knoweth. We even tax the 
Yankee characteristic in vain when we attempt to guess its fu- 
ture. Many yet unborn may live to see the fires of forges and 
furnaces without number illuminating the rugged mountains, 
and hear the screams of a thousand steam engines. They may 
live, too, to see the day when population shall have so increased 
that the noble stag dare no longer venture down from the mount- 
ain to slake his thirst at the babbling brook, and when the golden- 
hued trout, now sporting in every mountain stream shall be ex- 
tinct. But, before that time, there is reason to believe that the 
present generation, including your historian, will have strutted 
upon the stage the brief hour allotted to them, performed life's 
pilgrimage, and, finally, arrived at 



THE END. 



APPENDIX 



PREPARED BY 



WILLIAM H. EGLE, M. D., M. A. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 353 



THE AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA 

VALLEY. 



Oi S preliminary in the appendix to the reprint of Mr. Jones' 
Zpk History of the Early Settlement of the Juniata Valley, it 
^\ is eminently proper that a notice of the author be given 
in this connection. 

Uriah James Jones was born in New Berlin, Union county, 
March 23, 1820, of humble parentage, and died in Harrisburg, 
November 18, 1864. Unfortunately there are no records of his 
ancestry, and while the writer has met many who knew him in 
youth, yet none of them could give any information concerning 
his parents, except that his father died when very young and 
left him and a brother (Eli) to their mother's care. The lads 
were brought up on a farm, and Mr. Jones, until the age of 16, 
had no education whatever. At that age he was apprenticed to 
learn the trade of printer on the Union Times, New Berlin, with 
John M. Baum and Jacob Winich, serving his time out. He 
was a remarkably bright lad, could always see the funny side of 
an occurrence, and when he had mastered the language sufficient 
to write for the press, he could tell it in an inimitable way. 

Leaving New Berlin, he went to Lewisburg, where he worked 
for some time, and finally drifted to Harrisburg, where he worked 
on the Keystoneffanden Packer, Barrett and Parke. It was while 
in Harrisburg, working at case, that he wrote his famous novel, 
Simon Girty, a crude piece of liteYary work, but at that time re- 
garded as a brilliant performance. It is related that the late 
H. Frank McReynolds, of Harrisburg, another printer, was as- 
sociated with him in printing and publishing the book. Mr. 
Jones would write a chapter for McReynolds to "set," while he 
went to the case and set the type, containing the thread of the 
story, without copy. 

In 1842 he took a tour of the States as a tramp printer to see 
the country. It was an honorable thing in those days to be a 
tramp printer, as they were a class of intelligent, active work- 



354 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

ingmen, who could find employment in any printing office they 
came to. In the course of his travels, having a great love for 
the histrionic art, he joined a traveling theatrical company and 
traveled with them for almost a year. In this company was 
Jonathan F. Kelley, who wrote the Humors of Falconbridge, and 
other witty publications. He encouraged Mr. Jones to stick to 
writing for his living, picturing the easy life it was for a man 
with an active brain. 

The season closed at New Orleans, and there Mr. Jones was 
stricken with yellow fever. He recovered to find himself robbed 
of all he possessed by his landlady, who had fled at the approach 
of the fever and took his watch, money, and everything but the 
clothes he had on. When he regained his strength he set out 
on a Cramp to the North, reaching Harrisburg totally used up. 
From there he went to Philadelphia and secured work as a 
reporter on the Public Ledger. 

While on his travels as a strolling actor he met in Berwick, 
Columbia county, Miss Margaretta L. Traugh, sister of 0. A. 
Traugh, at present publisher of the Hollidaysburg Standard. It 
was a case of love at first sight, and all through his subsequent 
rambles his one thought was of marrying and settling down. 
In 1845 he left Philadelphia, where he was on intimate terms 
with Edgar A. Poe and other famous authors, and went to Hol- 
lidaysburg, where he was engaged by Mr, Traugh, as local editor 
of the Standard. 

In 1846 he married Miss Margaretta L. Traugh, and shortly 
afterwards went to Pittsburg, where he published a paper called 
the Keystone. It was a flat failure and he soon returned to Hol- 
lidaysburg to take up local editing again. He Went at it with a 
will and soon made the paper famous all over the United States. 
He was as widely quoted as Burdette or Bill Nye to-day, Co- 
temporaneous with George D. Prentice, of the Louisville Journal, 
many were the keen thrusts they had at each other, and often 
the whole nation roared at their bright wit and keen sarcasm. 
It is the fate of the jester to write that which is soon forgotten, 
and so it is with the fun 'these two men had. Who at this day, 
quotes either of them? That which Mr. Jones took the greatest 
trouble to polish is never flashed upon the public again, or, if it 
is, it is claimed by some wit of the present day. 

Mr. Jones could tell a local happening in a way that made 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 355 

you read it despite yourself. It may be said here that he was 
the first newspaper man in the United States to make a dis- 
tinctively local department in his paper — that is, he put all the 
locals together and classified them under the caption of " Local 
News." This he did on the Standard. 

In 1854 Mr. Jones began to gather materials for a '' History of 
Juniata Valley," which he had been urged by B. Frank Bell, 
Esq., of Bell's Mills, Blair county, to write. For one or two 
years he collected facts concerning the early settlement of the 
valley, gathering many narratives from the lips of old settlers 
who entered the valley when the red man still claimed owner- 
ship and disputed to the death the advance of civilization. In 
1856 he published the history, but while it only added to his 
fame it did not add materially to his bank account, and' he be- 
gan a correspondence for various papers in Philadelphia, Pitts- 
burg, and New York, writing sketches, stories, poems, and all 
sorts of literary articles " to keep the pot a-boiling." 

In 1858 he was local editor of the Lancaster Express, but soon 
returned home, although Colonel Piersol made him a most lib- 
eral offer to remain. In 1860 he was offered the place of city 
editor of the Harrisburg Patriot and Union, then published by 
Barrett & McDowell. This he accepted and with his family re- 
moved to Harrisburg, where he undertook the local department 
of this paper and acted as correspondent of several Philadelphia 
newspapers. In 1864 came the sad tragedy of his death. In the 
dusk of a November evening, while crossing the track at the 
Pennsylvania station to meet a friend, he was run down by a 
train of cars and instantly killed. Three days afterwards he was 
buried in the Harrisburg cemetery. Mr. Jones left a wife and 
four children — William T., a compositor on the Harrisburg lele- 
graph; Thomas M., one of the editors of the Harrisburg Tele- 
graph ; Gertrude L., now Mrs. Rush Jamison, of Philadelphia, 
and Harry C, a compositor on the Harrisburg Telegraph — all of 
whom are living. 

Mr. Jones was a bright, keen, and accurate writer. His wit 
was inimitable, while his pathos, as shown in some of his later 
sketches, was of the tenderest kind. He did not love a quarrel, 
but, being in, his opponent always found him a fair fighter and 
an unmercifully hard hitter. He said a kind word wherever 
he could, and it was this that made him many friends. Edu- 



356 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

cated entirely in a printing office, his command of language was 
astonishing. He was never at a loss for a word. A high-toned, 
honorable man, scorning to do that which would in the least re- 
flect upon him, he died poor, leaving his children his good name 
and bright, honorable record. On a small marble shaft in the 
Harrisburg cemetery is cut this inscription : " U. J. Jones, Au- 
thor and Journalist." And as such he was known to the world. 



THE PATTERSONS OF JUNIATA. 



In chapter four of the History of the Juniata Valley, refer- 
ence is made to Captain James Patterson, of Mexico. Full 
sketches of this brave pioneer of the valley and of his son, 
Captain William Patterson, from the pen of Samuel Evans, Esq., 
of Columbia, Pennsylvania, who has made extensive historical 
researches into the family of Patterson, are given as valuable 
information in connection with this history. 

Capt. James Patterson. 

James Patterson, son of James, was born on his father's plan- 
tation, in Conestoga Manor, in 1715, where he remained assist- 
ing his father in the Indian trade, and upholding his right to 
property on the west side of the river with a vigorous hand 
against the encroachments of Captain Cresap and his gang of 
outlaws, who held him a prisoner several times in their fort. 
He remained with his father until his death in October, 1735, 
and very probably remained with his mother until she married 
Thomas Ewing, of Donegal, in 1736. 

In the same year he married Mary Stewart, youngest daugh- 
ter of George Stewart, Esq., who settled upon land (now occupied 
by the lower half of Marietta) in 1719. After his marriage he 
removed to Donegal and probably resided with his mother-in- 
law, who was then a widow, whose other daughters were mar- 
ried and settled a few miles away from the homestead, for a few 
years. 

During Cresap's war he frequently shouldered his musket and 
marched to the relief of the Pennsylvanians, who were sorely 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 357 

pressed by superior numbers from Maryland. He established a 
trading post upon James Le Tort's nine hundred acres tract, a 
mile northeast of what is now known as Shock's Mills. Le Tort 
conveyed this entire tract to James Logan in 1728, and the latter 
owned it for twenty j^ears, when he divided the same and sold 
it to actual settlers. In May, 1747, he conveyed one hundred 
and fifty-two acres of this land to Peter Haig, who was then 
conducting a farm at Cheltenham belonging to Logan. This 
tract was given to him for long and faithful service. In May, 

1748, Haig and his wife Elizabeth sold this farm to James Low- 
rey, who married Mr. Patterson's sister Susanna. Mr. Patterson 
was then residing upon the farm, and in the month of Septem- 
ber, 1748, he purchased it, and sold it on the 10th day of April, 

1749, to Lazarus Lowrey, the father of James. 

Capt. James Lowrey sold his farm below Conoy creek, upon 
which the Ganawese or Conoy Indians had their town, and 
moved to the Juniata with his brother-in-law, Capt. James Pat- 
terson, about the year 1754. He and his brother, Daniel Low- 
rey, took up 2,000 acres of land at Frankstown on the Juniata. 
Both were officers in the French and Indian wars. Capt. James 
Lowrey died in 1761. Daniel Lowrey and the sons of the two 
brothers built a fort below Frankstown in 1778 to prevent at- 
tacks from the Indians. James Lowrey married a second time, 
it is believed, to the daughter of Capt. James Smith, who also 
moved to the Juniata in 1754. 

In the years 1744-5 the Indians at Conoy, having moved to 
Shamokin, (Sunbury,) there was no longer a necessity for an 
Indian store, where he then lived, and like Le Tort and a few 
other Indian traders, who also kept store, he concluded that he 
would follow the receding tide of Indian occupation. In the 
year 1750 he headed a company of pioneer settlers to the Valley 
of the Juniata, where he took up a tract of several hundred 
acres at a point where the present town of Mexico is in Juniata 
county. 

In the year 1751 he built a fort for the protection of the set- 
tlers at the mouth of Tuscarora Valley, then the principal cross- 
ing used by the Indians in traveling north to Shamokin, or 
going south to Virginia. Mr. Patterson was not only in constant 
danger from the attacks of the savages, but he occupied an un- 
pleasant position .in relation to the Proprietaries of Pennsylva- 



358 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

nia, who refused to give him a patent for his land because the 
Indian title to it had not been extinguished. In fact, all of the 
settlers along the Juniata and in the valleys south of it, were 
ordered by the Governor and Council to remove from these rich 
valleys. Captain Patterson, unlike his father, became very 
much embittered against the Penns, and refused to leave his set- 
tlement. The impending conflict between the French and the 
English soon gave the settlers plenty to do to save themselves, 
and the authorities at Philadelphia and the Assembly, after 
quarreling among themselves, and permitting hostile Indians to 
roam at large along the frontier, without giving the settlers the 
means to defend themselves, were brought to a realizing sense 
of their danger by the defeat of Braddock in July, 1755. There 
was no time then to be quarreling with the pioneer settlers about 
their land titles. Captain Patterson probably commanded a 
company of rangers during . the Braddock campaign, attached 
to the Provincial forces under Captain James Burd, when they 
were hewing a road through the forests and over mountains to 
the Monongahela. After Braddock's defeat he did not flee, like 
the coward Col. Dunbar, who did not stop with his army until 
they arrived in Philadelphia, thus exposing the entire frontiers 
to the attacks of the victorious savages. He hastened with his 
brave followers to his fort, and prepared to defend the settlers. 
He, and his gallant son William, then but a boy, struck back at 
the Indians whenever they got a chance. On October 2d, 1755, 
the savages suddenly appeared in Tuscarora Valley, the vicinity 
of Patterson's Fort, and killed and captured forty persons. 
Jenny McClane, a young girl then residing with a Mr. Frazer. 
mounted a horse with a man and fled toward the Fort, and when 
but a short distance from it, the Indians shot the horse through 
the body, when Jenny fell off the horse and was taken prisoner. 
The horse sprang forward and carried the man in safety to the 
Fort. 

The Indians surrounded the Fort, but the Pattersons defended 
it bravely and drove them away. Other forts were surprised 
and destroyed, but the savages were not able by strategem or 
superior numbers, to capture this one, which stood for many 
years and was the scene of bloody encounters with the Indians. 
In 1756, Captain Patterson was under the command of Major 
James Burd. He assisted in the erection and was in command 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY, 359 

of Pomfret Castle in 1756. The following is a copy of an origi- 
inal letter written to Major Burd: 

" Fort Pomfret Castle, Feb. 5, 1766. 
"Sir : Excuse my not sending a guard, according to your Re- 
quest. I have to-morrow morning a detachment of 24 men to 
Carlisle in order to Eschort Provisions from thence to my Fort. 
I have sent you the Patren of two match coats. I have Pur- 
chast two Beeves, one of which I send you. As for the milch 
cow, you wrote for, I cannot purchase without cash. The nails 
and axes I have sent by the men. The rest of the tools I have 
I cannot spare. 

"Yours, &c., 

"James Patterson." 

In the summer of 1756, Col. John Armstrong destroyed Kit- 
tanning. The French threatened to retaliate upon the settlers, 
and large bodies of Indians moved upon the West Branch of the 
Susquehanna river, to be within striking distance of the English 
settlements. The Governor took immediate measures to build 
a fort at Shamokin, now Sunbury, which was called Fort Au- 
gusta. Captain Patterson and his company, under direction 
of Major Burd, marched to Shamokin and commenced its con- 
struction. In the spring of 1757, Captain Patterson was detailed 
and placed in command of Fort Hunter, five miles above Har- 
ris' Ferry. In the fall of 1757 he was constantly sending out 
ranging parties along the base of the mountains, toward Robin- 
son's Fort, and up various creeks and across to the Juniata, 
Lieutenant Allen was the only ofiicer he had at the fort, and he 
was often compelled to range with a squad of men twenty-five 
and thirty miles away from the fort. They frequently met 
small bodies of Indians, who skulked or were driven away. 
His company became greatly diminished on account of sick- 
ness, and he commenced in January to recruit and fill up his 
company. A roll of this company is given in Pennsylvania Ar- 
chives, (N. S.,) vol, II, p. 549. 

Captain Patterson continued in command at Fort Hunter, and 
his company furnished ranging parties and guards for the bat- 
teaux fleet under the command of Daniel Lowrey, brother of 
James, who transported supplies from Harris' Ferry to Fort 
Augusta. On Feb. 16, 1758, Colonel James Burd, accompanied 



360 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

by Captain Hambrigbt, of his regiment, set out from Lancaster 
to inspect the forts from the Susquehanna to the Delaware river. 
On the same evening they arrived at the Black Bear tavern, 
owned and kept by Barnabas Hughes, an Indian trader, at 
Elizabethtown, the farm now being owned by Henry Wade- 
When here Captain Hambrigbt took suddenly ill, and an express 
was sent to Lancaster for Dr. Thompson. Mr. Hughes was the 
commissary for Fort Hunter and Fort Swatara, now Lebanon. 
It was he who laid out Elizabethtown and named it after his 
wife Elizabeth. 

In the beginning of July, 1758, Captain Patterson and about 
three-fourths of the command at Fort Augusta were ordered to 
march to Raystown, (Fort Bedford,) and join Brigadier General 
Forbes' army in their march to Fort DuQuesne. Their line of 
march was probably via Fort Patterson and Tuscarora Valley, 
or through Buffalo Valley, to Standing Stone, (Huntingdon.) 
The following is a plan of the formation of the troops in their 
line of march : 









f/( 



/•Sir 






/ 



I 

U-^^"^ (/i.u..,r 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 361 

According to this plan there were on the march two hundred 
and seventy-five privates. 

In the latter part of July, 1758, Major George Armstrong took 
one hundred pioneers and started from Raystovpn to hew a road 
through the forests and over the mountains to DuQuesne. He 
was closaly followed by Major Grant, who commanded the 
Highlanders, and Colonel Lewis, of Virginia, who had command 
of the Provincial troops, among which were a number of Penn- 
sylvanians. They were followed by Colonel Bouquet, who was 
in command of other troops as well as those under Grant and 
Lewis. Although these troops were seen daily by the Indians 
in their march from the time they left Raystown, Grant and 
Lewis, who exceeded their orders, were successful in eluding 
their vigilance, until within a day or two's march of the Ohio, 
and actually arrived in front of the fort without being discov- 
ered by the French. The fortification was too formidable-look- 
ing to warrant an attack, and Major Grant and Colonel Lewis 
<;oncluded that they would cause the drums to beat, which they 
hoped would bring the French and Indians to the outside of the 
fort. It had the desired effect, for they swarmed out, many of 
them not taking time to dress themselves. Many of them ran 
up the Allegheny river, and got in the rear of Grant and Lewis, 
while others attacked them on all sides, when a most terrific 
battle ensued. Grant and Lewis were defeated and terribly cut 
up, losing nearly three hundred killed and wounded and taken 
prisoners. One of the captains in charge of the baggage two 
miles in the rear, and in command of some of the Highlanders, 
as soon as he heard the firing, secured the baggage and marched 
forward. His troops never wavered when they met the routed 
forces, but attacked the Indians repeatedly, who had them sur- 
rounded. His troops reversed arms, and going forward as if to 
surrender, the Indians rushed at them, when they poured a 
deadly volley after volley into their ranks, and forced them to 
retreat. This battle was fought on September 14th. 

General Forbes and Colonel Bouquet were very much cha- 
grined when they heard of Grant's disobedience of orders, and 
their defeat. Colonel Bouquet left Raystown on October 3d, and 
hastened forward to Fort Ligonier, and when he arrived there 
pushed on his troops nine miles further west, and selected a 
camping ground at Loyal Hannon, Colonel Burd having com- 



362 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY 



mand of the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment. 
Colonel Joseph Shippen and Colonel Floyd probably com- 
manded the Augusta regiment. The following is a copy of the 
plan of Loyal Hannon camp. Colonel Washington had charge^ 
of the Virginia troops : 














/• ... y^V 4,.^/^^f^ ' 



The French and Indians arrived at and made an attack upom 
this camp on the 14th day of October, but were repulsed upon 
every side, and driven out of the timber. Their loss was sup- 
posed to be between two and three hundred, while the entire 
loss of the Provincial troops was but sixty-seven, of whom twelve 
were killed. Colonel Burd acquitted himself with great gal- 
lantry, as did Captains Atlee, Shippen, Patterson, and Ludwig 
Stone and other frontier county officers. 

The defeat of Grant and Lewis did not check the onward 
march of the army. Colonel Bouquet, a few days after the bat- 
tle of Loyal Hannon, made a rapid advance towards Fort Du- 
Quense. When but a few miles away the French blew up the 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 363 

fort and retreated partly down the Ohio, and partly up the Alle- 
gheny river. The fort was rebuilt and named after the great 
statesman, Pitt, under whose management the British arms tri- 
umphed everywhere. 

In 1759, Colonel Burd erected Fort Burd (Redstone) and con- 
veyed supplies from Fort Cumberland and Raystown to Fort 
Pitt. Captain Atlee and several other Lancaster county officers 
were in this command. Their plan of march is very much like 
the one already given, with the addition that the wagons and 
cattle are placed between sections of the column. It is true, 
Braddock adopted the same plan, and was thus formed when the 
head of his column struck the Indians, when he attempted to 
form in line of battle on the front company, which he did not 
succeed in doing, the Indians being on front and flanks, threw 
the troops into disorder. 

Captain Patterson returned to his own fort after the Indians 
were whipped into subjection, and he turned his attention again 
to the cultivation of his much neglected land. He did not, 
however, omit the taking precautionary measures to keep his 
fort in good repair, and provide it with the material for defense. 
The Indians remained quiet until Pontiac's war broke out in 1763, 
when the savage barbarities were fearful. Captain Patterson 
and his son, Lieutenant William Patterson, were again on guard. 
They followed them to their places of concealment, and gave 
them many hard blows. When we come to write of Captain 
William Patterson, we will give a sketch of his movements. 
Captain James Patterson died at his fort and is buried in the 
grave-yard on the present property of Jerome W. Thompson. 
His wife, Mary, died at Middletown, probably when on a visit 
to her son, who married Colonel Burd's daughter, and is buried 
there. They left the following issue : 
i. Captain William, 
ii. Mary. 
Hi. Elizabeth, 
iv. Susan. 
V. James, 
vi. George. 

Mary Patterson married, first, Thomas Chambers, who was 
killed by the Indians on " Big Island," on the West Branch. 
They had issue one son and one daughter. The son was in the 



864 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

army, and the daughter ran off with an officer of the army, at 
Fort Potter. 

Mrs. Chambers married the second time General James Potter, 
of Revolutionary memory, and had the following children: 

i. General James ; who married Miss Brown, daughter of 

Judge Brown, of " Brown's Mills." 
a. Martha; in. Andrew Gregg, of Penn's Valley, ancestor 

of Governor Curtin. 
Hi. Mary; m. first, Mr. Riddle, in 1783; she m. second 
time George McClellan, of Lewistown. 
Another daughter m. Captain James Poe, and another m. 
Captain Crouch. 

Elizabeth Patterson m, Robert Campbell, of Tuscarora Valley. 
He was killed by the Indians and left no issue. 

Susan m. Mr. Moore, of Cumberland county. Some of her 
descendants live near Carlisle and Papertown. 
James m. Jane Harris, of Mifflin, and had issue : 

1. William, m. to Ann Riddle. 

2. John, m. first, Ellen Moore, secondly, Mary Kenny. 

3. Thomas. 

4. Jaiie, died without issue. 

George Patterson m. Jane Burd, daughter of Colonel James 
Burd, of Tinian, and had issue: 

1. Sarah, b. Nov. 18, 1784. 

2. Mary, b. July 6, 1786. 

3. James Burd, b. July 8, 1788. 

4. Edward, b. Feb. 21, 1790. 

.5. Joseph Shippen, b, July 10, 1791. 

6. William- Augustus, b. Nov. 1, 1792. 

7. Charlotte-Chambers, b. March 9,1794; d. at Marietta 

Pa., March 20, 1863. 

8. Elizabeth, b. Dec. 6, 1795. 

9. George, b. Sept. 5, 1797. 
10. Galbraith, d. in infancy. 

James Burd Patterson m. Matilda Dowes and had James, who 
m. Matilda Hubley, Mary, and Joseph, who m. Miss Weaver. 

William Augustus Patterson m. Elizabeth Peale, who had 
Sophanisha, who m. George Herkeseimer, and Charles. 

Charlotte Chambers Patterson m. William Thompson, June 
14, 1816, who had: 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 365 

1. Edward P., who m. Matilda Snyder. 

2. William S.^ m. Isabella H. Marr. 

3. Maria. 

4. George. 

5. Lucian M., m, Kate U, Yuntman. 

6. Mary. 

7. Theophilus ; m. Mary E. Harrington. 

8. Theodore S.; m. Annie E..Cassel, of Marietta, Pa. 

9. Robert. 

10. Josephine; m. Thomas Zell, of Reading, Pa. 

Elizabeth Patterson m. Reubens Peale, and had seven children. 

George Patterson m. first, Maria Shindle and had six children ; 
m. secondly, Lydia Adams, and had nine children. 

There are some of the descendants of Captain James Patterson 
in Juniata Valley, who retain his name. 

Captain William Patterson. 

Captain William Patterson (James, James,) was born in 
Donegal township, Lancaster county, in the year 1737, and went 
with his father. Captain James Patterson, to the Juniata Valley 
in 1749 or 1750. The first act of the old pioneer was to erect a 
block-house, to protect his family from sudden attacks by the 
Indians. To clear the land and till the soil, and make it capa- 
ble of producing grain and vegetables, required a great deal of 
time and labor, before the settlers were wholly able to make it 
self-supporting : and hence we find these hardy pioneers depend- 
ing very much upon their rifles for the means of procuring sub- 
sistence. William Patterson, from the time he came to the Val- 
ley, to the period of old age, was the most expert marksman 
along the frontier. His father, who was an Indian Trader and 
kept store at the crossing of the Juniata, in the direct line of 
travel between the southern and northern Indians, often had 
large numbers of savages about his store, and he knew from ex- 
perience that nothing would elicit the admiration or wholesome 
dread of the white man's power so much as being an expert 
marksman, and he was certainly excusable for erecting a target 
sixty odd yards from the door of his dwelling. Whenever the 
Indians made their appearance old Captain James Patterson or 
his son William leisurely took down their rifle from its resting 
place, and stepping to the doorway, fired at the target, which 



366 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

they invariably hit in the center, or very close to it. The In- 
dians would collect around and examine the target, and in their 
lingo express their astonishment and admiration of the skill of 
Captain Patterson or his son. By resorting to a trick cf this 
kind, they were able to play upon the fears of the Indians for 
several years, and to the period of Braddock's defeat, when the 
Indians commenced a general slaughter of the frontier settlers. 
It is probable that William was with his father, who commanded 
a company of Rangers under Major James Burd, who had 
charge of the pioneers when making a road over the mountains 
for Braddock's army. 

When his father raised a company and was regularly mus- 
tered into the military service under Major afterwards Colonel 
James Burd, William was appointed ensign, an officer on equal 
footing to that of second lieutenant, and marched with his father 
to Shamokin, where the troops commenced the erection of Fort 
Augusta (now Sunbury) in 1756. For meritorious services, 
William Patterson was promoted to a lieutenant December 12, 
1757. He was still a minor (as was also Lieutenant Samuel 
Atlee.) For many months he and his father, with details of pri- 
vates, ranged the mountains and streams in search of Indians. 
They resorted very often to the methods adopted by the Indians 
to protect themselves or circumvent the cunning of the savages. 

William Patterson not only displayed great capacity as a par- 
tizan soldier, but was equally conspicuous in civil life. He 
marched with the advance of General Forbes' Army to Fort 
DuQuesne in 1758 and participated in the battle of Loyal Han- 
non in October, 1758. He also served under Colonel Burd, in 
conveying live stock and subsistence from Fort Cumberland to 
Fort Burd (Brownsville) and Fort Pitt in 1759. 

After his return from the army, Captain Patterson seems to 
have devoted his time to land surveying, and the strengthening 
of his block-house on the opposite side of the river to that of 
his father's, where he located several hundred acres of land. 
His fine presence and dashing character won the admiration and 
esteem of the pioneer settlers, especially the young men, who 
followed the chase and provided game for the large and growing 
settlements in Tuscarora Valley and around Patterson's Fort. 

Forbes' campaign was followed by a few years only of peace 
with the Indians. Pontiac's war came upon the settlers in 1763. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 367 

Suddenly, and without any previous warning, fort after fort and 
many private block-houses were taken and destroyed, and their 
feeble garrisons put to the hatchet or stake. The danger of anni- 
hilation of the entire settlenaents west of the Cumberland Valley 
was imminent, and there was a tremendous rush of men, women 
and children to Lancaster and York counties to escape the fury 
•of the savages. 

Captain William Patterson called his young hunters around 
him and bid defiance to the Indians. Pontiac had boasted that 
no wooden fort or stockade could escape destruction if he desired 
to destroy them. When they could not induce a garrison by 
cunning and lying to surrender, they would load a wagon with 
straw or hay and set it on fire, and back it against the timbers 
and let the demon fire do the work. Although Patterson's Fort 
was surrounded by savages repeatedly, they were driven away 
or kept at a distance by the expert riflemen under the command 
of Captain Patterson. 

In December, 1767, Frederick Stump (who was born in Heid- 
elberg township, then in Lancaster, now Berks, county) and his 
hired man named Ironcutter, brutally murdered ten Indians, 
composed of men, women, and children, when they were asleep, 
near Gabriel's, on the west side of the Susquehanna, and only a few 
miles from Fort Augusta. As soon as Captain William Patter- 
son heard of this affair, he collected nineteen of his young rifle- 
men, and mounting horses, rode rapidly to the scene of the 
murder. They found Stump and Ironcutter at Gabriel's sur- 
rounded by their friends, who were also armed, some of whom 
were noted Indian fighters, and were determined to resist arrest. 
It was but a short time before he captured and tied them upon 
horses, and hastened with the prisoners to Carlisle jail. He had 
no warrant for their arrest, nor did he wait to see the Governor's 
proclamation offering a reward for their arrest. When he ar- 
rived at Carlisle the sheriff had just received Governor Penn's 
proclamation, and had collected a posse when Captain Patterson 
arrived with his prisoners. The following is his own account of 
the arrest. He also sent a message in writing to the Indians 
living along the North and West Branches of the river, wherein 
he assured them that Stump would be punished, &c. After he 
delivered the prisoners to tie sheriff he started to Philadelphia, 
to give the Governor and Council a full report of the affair. On 



368 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

the following day a large number of the border settlers effected 
an entrance into the jail and rescued Stump and Ironcutter and 
carried them off in triumph. Neither of them were ever re- 
arrested. 

" Carlisle, 23d January, 1768. 

"Dear Sir: The 2l8t instant I marched a party of nineteen 
men to George Gabriel's House at Penn's creek mouth, and made 
prisoners of Frederick Stump and John Ironcutter, who were 
suspected to have murdered Ten of our Friend Indians near 
Fort Augusta, and I have this day delivered them to Mr. Holmes 
at Carlisle Gaol. 

"Yesterday I sent a person to the Great Island, that under- 
stands the Indian Language, with a Talk, a copy of which is 
enclosed. Myself and Party were exposed to great danger by 
the desperate Resistance made by Stump, and his Friends who 
sided with him. The steps I have taken, I flatter myself, will 
not be disapproved of by the Gentlemen in Government, my 
sole view being directed to the Service of the Frontiers before I 
heard His Honour the Governor's Orders. The message I have 
sent to the Indians I hope will not be deemed assuming any 
authority of my own, as you are very sensible I am no stranger 
to the Indians and their customs. 

" I am with Respect 

your most obedient 

humble servant 

"William Patterson. 

" To Joseph Shippen, Esq.'''' 

Joseph Shippen, Jr., was the Provincial Secretary and a fellow 
officer at Fort Augusta, and in the campaigns against the French 
and Indians. 

The Governor was so highly pleased with the prompt action 
of Captain Patterson, that he gave him a special commission as 
Justice of the Peace, and judge of the Common Pleas Court of 
Cumberland county. It is probable that Captain Patterson went 
with Colonel Burd to Wyoming Valley in 1769, who was ap- 
pointed a commissioner to ascertain the extent of the Connecticut 
settlement, and the designs of the settlers. He was appointed 
one of the commissioners to lay outJNorthumberland county in 
1772. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 369 

William Patterson married Mary Galbraith, a descendant of 
the Galbraiths who settled in Donegal, Lancaster county, some 
of whom moved to Cumberland county, and afterwards became 
conspicuous in the military and civil history of the State and 
Nation, 

Captain William Patterson had but one child by his first wife, 
Mary Galbraith, namely, Galbraith Patterson, who was born at 
Patterson's Fort in the year 1767. He went to Lancaster and 
was admitted to the Bar there in 1789. He moved to Harrisburg 
in the year 1790, and from thence to Lycoming county, where 
he died February 26, 1801, leaving a widow, Catharine, who 
afterwards married James Orbison, of Chambersburg, where she 
died February 24, 1811. She had a daughter, Isabella, by Mr. 
Patterson, who married first time, David Maclay ; secondly, Hon. 
Alex. L. Hays, who for forty years was judge of the circuit 
court and of the common pleas court in Lancaster. 

Captain William Patterson's second wife was Esther Findley, 
a granddaughter of old John Harris, who settled in Paxtang 
and established a ferry where Harrisburg now is. They had 
issue : 

i. Isabella, m. Mr. Hunter, of " White Deer Valley." 
ii. William, who resided in White Deer Valley, where he 

died in 1856. 
Hi. John, 
iv. Javies, who settled in Warren county, Ohio. 



INDIAN MASSACRES IN 1763. 



The contemporary account of the attack by the Indians upon 
the family of William White, an early settler on the Juniata, 
we glean from the Pewrisylvania Gazette, published at Philadel- 
phia: 

Carlisle, July 12, 1763. 

I embrace this first leisure, since yesterday morning, to trans- 
mit you a brief account of our present state of affairs here, 
which indeed is very distressing ; every day almost afibrding 
some fresh object to awaken the compassion, alarm the fears or 
24 



370 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

kindle into resentment and vengeance every sensible breast, 
while flying families, obliged to abandon house and possessions, 
to save their lives by a hasty escape ; mourning widows bewail- 
ing their husbands, surprised and massacred by savage rage ; 
tender parents lamenting the fruit of their own bodies, cropt in 
the very bloom of life by a barbarous hand ; with relations and 
acquaintances pouring out sorrow for murdered neighbors and 
friends, present a scene of mingled distress. 

When, for some time, after striking at Bedford, the Indians 
appeared quiet, nor struck any other part of our frontiers, it be- 
came the prevailing opinion that our forts and communication 
were so peculiarly the object of their attention, that till at least 
after harvest, there was little prospect of danger to our inhabi- 
tants over the hills ; and to dissent from this generally received 
sentiment was political heresy, and attributed to timidity rather 
than to judgment, till too early conviction has decided the point 
in the following manner : 

On Sunday morning, the 10th instant, about nine or ten 
o'clock, at the house of one William White, on Juniata, between 
thirty and forty miles hence, there being in said house four men 
and a lad, the Indians came rushing upon them, and shot White, 
at the door, just stepping out to see what the noise meant. Our 
people then pulled in White and shut the door ; but observing, 
through a window, the Indians setting fire to a house, they at- 
tempted to force their way out at the door ; but the first that 
stept out being shot down, they drew him in and again shut the 
door, after which one, attempting to escape out of a window on 
the loft, was shot through the head, and the lad wounded in the 
arm. The only one now remaining, William Riddle, broke a 
hole through the roof of the house, and an Indian, who saw him 
looking out, alleged he was about to fire on him, withdrew, 
which afforded Riddle an opportunity to make his escape. The 
house, with the other four in it, was burned down, as one Mc- 
Machen informs, who was coming to it, not suspecting Indians, 
and was by them fired at and shot through the shoulder, but 
made his escape. The same day, about dinner time, at about a 
mile and a half from said White's house, at the house of Robert 
Campbell, six men being in the house, as they were dining, three 
Indians rushed in at the door, and, after firing among them and 
wounding some, they tomahawked, in an instant, one of the men ; 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 371 

whereupon one George Dodds, one of the company, sprang into 
the room, took down a rifle, and shot an Indian through the 
body who was presenting his piece to shoot him. The Indian 
being mortally wounded, staggered, and, letting his gun fall, was 
carried off by three more. Dodds, with one or two more, getting 
upon the loft, broke the roof in in order to escape, and, looking 
out, saw one of his company, Stephen Jeffries, running, but very 
slowly, by reason of a wound in the breast, and an Indian pur- 
suing ; and it was thought he could not escape, nor have we 
heard of him since ; so that it is past dispute he also is mur- 
dered. The first that attempted getting out of the loft was fired 
at, and drew back ; another, attempting, was shot dead, and of 
the six, Dodds was the only one that made his escape. The 
same day, about dusk, about six or seven miles up Tuscarora, 
and about twenty-eight or thirty miles hence, they murdered 
one William Anderson, together with a boy and a girl, all in 
one house. At White's were seen at least five, some say eight or 
ten Indians, and at Campbell's about same number. On Mon- 
day, the 11th, a party of about twenty-four went over from the 
upper part of Shearman's Valley to see how matters were. An- 
other party of twelve or thirteen went over from the upper part 
of said valley ; and Colonel John Armstrong, with Thomas Wil- 
son, Esq., and a party of between thirty and forty from this 
town, to reconnoitre and assist in bringing the dead. 

Of the first and third parties we have heard nothing yet; but 
of the party of twelve, six are come in and inform that they 
have passed through the several places in Tuscarora, and saw 
the houses in flames or burned entirely down ; and the grain 
that had been reaped the Indians burnt in shocks, and had set 
the fences on fire where the grain was unreaped ; that the hogs 
had fallen upon and mangled several of the dead bodies ; that 
the said company of twelve, suspecting danger, durst not stay 
to bury the dead ; that after they had returned over the Tusca- 
rora mountain, about one or two miles on this side of it, and 
about eighteen or twenty from hence, they were fired on by a 
large party of Indians, supposed about thirty, and were obliged 
to fly ; that two, viz. : William Robinson and John Graham, are 
certainly killed, and four more are missing, who, it is thought, 
have fallen into the hands of the enemy, as they appeared slow 
in flight, most probably wounded, and the savages pursued with 



372 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

violence. What further mischief has been done we have not 
heard, but expect every day and hour some more messages of 
melancholy news. 

In hearing of the above defeat, we sent out another party of 
thirty or upwards, commanded by our high sheriff, Mr. Dun- 
ning, and Mr. William Lyon, to go in quest of the enemy, or fall 
in with and reinforce our other parties. There are also a num- 
ber gone out from about three miles above this, so that we now 
have over the hills upwards of eighty or ninety volunteers 
scouring the woods. The inhabitants of Shearman's Valley, 
Tuscarora, etc., are all come over, and the people of this valley, 
near the mountain, are beginning to move in, so that in a few 
days there will be scarcely a house inhabited north of Carlisle. 
Many of our people are greatly distressed, through want of arms 
and ammunition ; and numbers of those, beat off their places, 
have hardly money enough to purchase a pound of powder. 

Our women and children must move downwards, if the enemy 
proceed. To-day a British vengeance begins to rise in the 
breasts of our men. One of them, that fell from among the 
twelve, as he was just expiring, said to one of his fellows : "Here, 
take my gun and kill the first Indian you see and all shall be 
well." 

July 13, 1768. 

Last night Colonel Armstrong returned. He left the party 
who pursued further and found several dead, whom they buried 
in the best manner they could, and are now all returned in. 
From what appears, the Indians are traveling from one place to 
another, along the valley, burning the farms and destroying all 
the people they met with. This day gives an account of six 
more being killed in the valley, so that, since last Sunday morn- 
ing to this day, twelve o'clock, we have a pretty authentic ac- 
count of the number slain, being twenty-five, and four or five 
wounded. The Colonel, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Alricks are now on 
the parade, endeavoring to raise another party to go out and 
succor the Sheriff and his party, consisting of fifty men, which 
marched yesterday, and I hope they will be able to send off 
immediately twenty good men. The people here, I assure you, 
want nothing but a good leader and a little encouragement to 
make a very good defence. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 373 

Our advices from Carlisle [says, the editor of the Pennsylvania 
Gazette of July 28] are as follows, viz: That the party under the 
sheriff, Mr. Dunning, mentioned in our last, fell in with the 
enemy at the house of one Alexander Logan, in Shearman's Val- 
ley, supposed to be about fifteen or upwards, who had murdered 
the said Logan, his son, and another man about two miles from 
said house, and mortally wounded a fourth, who is since dead, 
and that, at the time of their being discovered, they were rifling 
the house and shooting down the cattle, and, it is thought, about 
to return home with the spoil they had got. 

That our men, on seeing them, immediately spread themselves 
from right to left with a design to surround >them, and engaged 
the savages with great courage, but, from their eagerness, rather 
too soon, as some of the party had not got up when the skirmish 
began ; that the enemy returned our first fire very briskly, but 
our people, regardless of that, rushed upon them, when they 
fled and were pursued a considerable way, till thickets secured 
their escape, four or five of them, it was thought, being mortally 
wounded ; that our parties had brought in with them what cattle 
they could collect, but that great numbers were killed by the 
Indians, and many of the horses that were in the valleys carried 
off; that on the 21st inst., [the morning] news was brought of 
three Indians being seen about ten o'clock in the morning; one 
Pomeroy and his wife and the wife of one Johnson were sur- 
prised in a house between Shippensburg and the North Mount- 
ain, and left there for dead; but that one of the women, when 
found, showed some signs of life, was brought to Shippensburg, 
where she lived some hours in a most miserable condition, being 
scalped, one of her arms broken'and her skull fractured with the 
stroke of a tomahawk ; and that, since the 10th inst., there was 
an account of fifty-four persons being killed by the enemy. 

That the Indians had set fire to the houses, barns, corn, wheat, 
and rye, hay — in short, to everything combustible — so that the 
whole country seemed to be one blaze ; that the miseries and 
distresses of the poor people were really shocking to humanity 
and beyond the power of language to describe; that Carlisle was 
become the barrier, not a single inhabitant being beyond it; that 
every stable and hovel in the town was crowded with miserable 
refugees, who were reduced to a state of beggary and despair, 
their houses, cattle, and harvest destroyed, and, from a plentiful, 



374 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

independent people, they were become real objects of charity 
and commiseration; that it was dismal to see the streets filled 
with people, in whose countenance might be discovered a mix- 
ture of grief, madness, and despair, and to hear, now and then, 
the sighs and groans of men, the disconsolate lamentations of 
women, and the screams of children, who had lost their nearest 
and dearest relatives ; and that, on both sides of the Susque- 
hanna, for some miles, the woods were filled with poor families 
and their cattle, who made fires and lived like savages, exposed 
to the inclemencies of the weather. 



Carlisle, July 30, 1763. 

On the 25th, a considerable number of the inhabitant of Shear- 
man's Valley went over with a party of soldiers to guard them, 
to attempt saving as much of their grain as might be standing, 
and it is hoped a considerable quantity will be preserved. A 
party of volunteers (between twenty and thirty) went to the far- 
ther side of the valley, next to the Tuscarora Mountain, to see 
what appearance there might be of the Indians, as it was thought 
they would most probably be there, if anywhere in the settle- 
ment; to search for, and bury the dead at Buffalo Creek, and to 
assist the inhabitants that lived along the foot of the mountain, 
in bringing off" what they could, which services they accordingly 
performed, burying the remains of three persons, but saw no 
marks of Indians having lately been there, excepting one track 
supposed about two or three days old, near the narrows of Buf- 
falo Creek hill, and heard some hallooing and firing of a gun at 
another place. A number of inhabitants of Tuscarora Valley go 
over the mountain to-morrow, with a party of soldiers, to endeavor 
to save part of the crops. Five Indians were seen last Sunday, 
about sixteen or seventeen miles from Carlisle, up the valley 
towards the North Mountain, and two the day before yesterday, 
about five or six miles from Shippensburg, who fired at a young 
man and missed him. 

On the 25th July there were in Shippensburg 1384 of our poor, 
distressed, back inhabitants, viz. : men, 301; women, 345; child- 
ren, 738; many of whom were obliged to lie in barns, stables, 
cellars, and under old, leaky sheds, the dwelling houses being, 
all crowded. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 375 

In a letter dated Carlisle, 13th August, 1763, it is said that 
some Indians have lately been seen in Shearman's Valley, and 
that on the 11th the tracks of a party were found, supposed to 
consist of eight or ten, coming through Shearman's Valley towards 
Carlisle, about twelve miles upward. In another letter, dated 
August 17th, mention is made that one John Martin, in the 
Great Cove, seeing an Indian coming up to a house where he wasj 
fired at him, upon which the Indians raised a yell and took a 
tree; that Martin, imagining there might be more Indians near 
him, ran to a company at work and told what had happened, 
when they went to the place, found some blood and excrements, 
from which they concluded he was shot through the bowels. 

They followed his track down to a bottom, where they saw the 
tracks of six or seven more, but, being a small party, pursued no 
farther. In the same letter it is also said that a young man, at 
a plantation about nine miles from Carlisle, near the foot of the 
mountain, saw an Indian and fired at him at about fifty yards 
distance, but was not sure that he hit him. The Indian took a 
tree and the lad went back a little way, in order to load again, 
but on his return could not see the Indian. He then alarmed 
the neighborhood, and, the soldiers being all out in parties cover- 
ing the people gathering grain, upwards of twenty young men 
turned out immediately, from Carlisle, to scour the woods. 



NARRATIVE OF ROBERT ROBINSON. 



The following narrative was furnished the editor of " Loudon's 
Indian Narratives," by Robert Robinson, who was an eye-wit- 
ness to many of the transactions related by him. He was wounded 
at the Kittanning when it was taken by Col. afterwards Gen. John 
Armstrong, and a second time at the skirmish at Buffalo Creek, 
where two of his brothers fell victims to savage fury. (See also 
Chapter V, History Juniata Valley.) He says. Sideling Hill was 
the first fought battle after Braddock's defeat ; in the year 1756, 
a party of Indians came out of Conococheague, to a garrison 
named M'Cord's Fort, where they killed some and took a num- 
ber prisoners. They then took their course near Fort Littleton. 
Captain Hamilton being stationed there with a company, hearing 



376 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

of their route at M'Cord's Fort, marched with his company of men 
having an Indian with them who was under pay ; this Indian led 
the company, came to the tracks of the Indians, and followed 
them to Sideling Hill, where they found them with their prison- 
ers,-giving the first fire but without doing much damage; the 
Indians returned the fire, defeated our men, and killed a num- 
ber of them ; my brother, James Robinson, was among the slain. 
The Indians had M'Cord's wife with them ; they cut off Mr. 
James Blair's head, and threw it in Mrs. M'Cord's lap, saying 
that was her husband's head ; but she knew it to be Blair's. 

The next I remember of, was in the same year, the Woolcom- 
ber family, on Shearman's Creek ; the whole of the inhabitants 
of the valley were gathered to a fort at George Robinson's ; but 
the Woolcomber would not leave home ; he said it was the Irish 
who were killing one another ; these peaceable people, the In- 
dians, would not hurt any person. Being at home and at dinner 
the Indians came in, and the Quaker asked them to come and 
eat dinner ; an Indian answered that he did not come to eat, but 
for scalps ; the son, a boy of 14 or 15 years of age, when he heard 
the Indian say so, repaired to a back door, and as he went out 
he looked back and saw the Indian strike the tomahawk into 
his father's head. The boy then ran over the creek which was 
near to the house, and heard the screams of his mother, sisters, 
and brothers. The boy came to our fort and gave us the alarm, 
— about forty went to where the murder was done and buried 
the dead. 

In the month of September, 1757, Col. John Armstrong, with 
307 men, went to Kittanning, undiscovered until we came to a 
place called the Forty Mile Lick, where the Indians trimmed 
the hair of their prisoners. We lay there on Saturday night ; the 
next morning the Colonel ordered two of our guides to spy the 
town ; they went, and brought back word that the Indians were 
there. The names of the spies were Thomas Burke and James 
Chalmers, both old traders. We marched from that place to the 
town that day and night. 

When we came within about six miles of the town, we ob- 
served a fire; our Colonel ordered two men to go and spy how 
many Indians there were at the fire ; accordingly they went, 
but could see only four, the rest had lain down and could not be 
seen. The Colonel left Lieut. Hoge, with twelve men, to fight 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 6i i 

these supposed four; whereas the prisoners give the account, 
that there was twenty-five Indians sent out to kill meat for the 
company that was to be there next night, consisting of 150, 
destined for Virginia. These twelve men and their officer, 
crawled near the Indians before daybreak. An Indian c^me 
toward them and was like to come too near, the Indian not 
knowing any thing of them ; these men fired at this Indian, 
but missed him, when all the Indians ran from the fire and left 
their guns standing at a rack, which they commonly have. Our 
men standing, and not laying hold of the Indians' guns, gave 
them time to return for their guns, and commence a battle. Out 
of which party the Indians killed the Lieutenant and five men, 
and wounded two others. Shortly after they began, we began at 
the town, and they heard our firing which discouraged the In- 
dians greatly ; our people telling them, your town is on fire, you 
dogs you : our people got off", and the Indians did not follow 
them as they would have done. When the Indian magazine 
blew up in the town, they ceased firing a considerable time, 
which report was heard at Fort Pitt. A boy of the name of 
Crawford, told afterwards, that he was up at the Kittanning the 
next day, with some French and Indians, and found Captain 
Jacobs, his squaw and son, with some others. 

The form in which we made the attack was : our captains 
stood all in rank, each company behind their captain ; the word 
was given, every man do for himself; we rushed down to the 
town, the Indians' dogs barked, and the first house we came to> 
the Indian came out, and held his hand, as shading the light 
from his eyes, looking towards us until there were five guns fired 
-at him ; he then ran, and with a loud voice called shewanick^ 
which signifies white men ; there was in the house a young 
woman, a prisoner, who came out with both her hands raised 
up, but the guns were firing so fast she got frightened, and ran 
back to the house again, where she got a grain of swan shot 
through her arm ; she then made out a second time and was re- 
ceived b}^ us; the Indians being then alarmed, were running 
through the cornfield; they fired on us, but to no purpose; we 
rushed into the town, and they all left it except Captain Jacobs, 
his squaw, son, and one called by traders Pisquetum, and some 
others that were blown up with their magazine ; we relieved five 
prisoners, besides the young woman which we first took, she was 



378 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

re-taken when Captain Mercer's company was broken, which I 
shall give you an account of. 

When we had ended our tragedy in the town, we then pre- 
pared for the road; we had six killed, and six wounded, our 
Colonel was among the wounded ; before the Indians gave up 
the Colonel says, is there none of you lads, that will set fire to 
these rascals that have wounded me, and killed so many of our 
men ? John Ferguson, a soldier, swore that he would ; he goes 
to a house covered with bark, and takes a slice of bark which 
had fire on it, he rushes up to the cover of Jacobs' house, and 
held it there until it had burned about one yard square, ^en he 
ran, and the Indians fired at him — the smoke blew about his 
legs but the shot missed him ; all eyes were upon the magazine, 
watching when these fellows would come forth ; they remained 
until their guns took fire, and went off like a platoon ; their 
magazine blew up at the same time ; when Jacobs and those be- 
fore mentioned sprang out, Jacobs' squaw wielded a tomahawk 
round her head before she jumped the fence ; Jacobs fell first, 
then his wife, and then his son, in proportion seven feet high. 
We were then preparing to leave the town, when Captain Mer- 
cer, who had his right arm broken in the town — his company 
was chiefly composed of traders, who persuaded their captain 
that there would not one living man of us ever get home, and if 
he, Captain Mercer, would go with them, they would take him a 
near cut — accordingly all his company went with him but Ser- 
geant Brown, and twelve men ; the captain, however, and his 
men, unfortunately fell in with the Indians that Lieut. Hoge had 
been fighting with that morning ; they fell upon his company 
and broke it, killing about twenty men ; Captain Mercer having 
a horse, Thomas Burke, ensign Scott and he, drove to the road 
that we had gone along ; there the Captain's arm broke loose, 
and he was forced to stop and dress it; he became faint; in the 
meantime they espied] an Indian coming from following us ; 
Burke and Scott mounted Mercer's horse and rode off, leaving 
him to his fate ; but Mercer lay down behind a log, it happening 
to be thick of weeds, the Indian came about six from him, and 
seeing Burke and Scott riding, he gave out a halloo and ran after ; 
in a short time Mercer heard two guns gooff; he then went 
down through a long plumb bottom, and lay there until night, 
when he made the best of his way. It was at the time of the 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 379 

plumbs being ripe, but they did not last long enough, for the 
Captain had a month to struggle with, before he got home — all 
the food he got after the plumbs were done, was one rattle-snake, 
and had to eat that raw. On the north side of the Allegheny- 
Mountain, he saw one day what he thought to be an Indian, 
and the other saw him ; both took trees and stood a long time ; 
at last the captain thought he would go forward and meet his fate^ 
but when he came near, he found it to be one of his own men \ 
both rejoiced to meet, and both in that situation scarce able to 
walk ; they pushed over the mountain, and were not far from 
Frankstown, when the soldier lay down, unable to go any fur- 
ther, with the intention never more to rise. The captain went 
about seven miles, when he also lay down, giving up all hopes 
of ever getting home. At this time there was a company of 
Cherokee Indians in king's pay, and being at Fort Littleton, 
Captain Hamilton sent some of them to search along the foot of 
the Allegheny Mountain to see if there were signs of Indians on 
that route, and these Indians came upon Captain Mercer, unable to 
rise ; they gave him food, and he told them of the other ; they 
took the Captain's track and found him, and brought him ta 
Fort Littlleton, carrying him on a bier of their own making. We 
took fourteen scalps in this expedition. 

As for our retreating from the Kittanning, we met with no op- 
position, only a few Indians on this side of the town fired on us ; 
they shot about two hundred yards, and shot Andrew Douglas 
through both ancles. We had no more injury done until we 
came to this side of the Allegheny mountain, when one Samuel 
Chambers, having left his coat at Clear Fields, desired leave of 
Colonel Armstrong to go back for his coat, and to bring three 
horses which had given out ; Colonel Armstrong advised against 
it, but Chambers insisted on going, and so went back ; when he 
came to the top of the mountain, a party of Indians fired on him 
but missed him ; Chambers then steered towards Big Island, the 
Indians pursued and the third day killed him on French Mar- 
garet's Island. So the Indians told old Captain Patterson. 

The next was General Bouquet, the second war, when the In- 
dians thought they were able to kill and take us all themselves, 
the French being bound by the last treaty of peace not to sup- 
ply the Indians with powder and lead, the Indians not knowing 
this until they were in need of ammunition. They however did 



380 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

much mischief; they fought Bouquet at Bushy Run, but were 
defeated. At this time Bouquet went down the Ohio seventy- 
five miles below Fort Pitt, and sent one David Owens, who had 
been married to an Indian woman, and had by her three chil- 
dren, when taking a thought that he would advance himself, 
killed and scalped his wife and children, and brought their scalps 
to Philadelphia ; he received no reward, but was made ambas- 
sador between General Bouquet and the Indians. 

When Owens was sent to let the Indians know they might 
have peace, they made a prisoner of him, for the murder he had 
committed, two of his wife's brothers being there ; Owens gave 
them to know, if they killed him they would never get peace. 

The Indians held council three days upon him ; they then let 
him go and came up themselves, agreeably to the invitation 
which was sent to them, and agreed to give up the prisoners. 
So ended that campaign. 

In this second war, on the fifth day of July, 1763, the Indians 
came to Juniata, it being harvest time, and the white people 
were come back to reap their crops ; they came first to the house 
of Wm. White ; it was on the Sabbath day ; the reapers were all 
in the house ; the Indians crept up nigh to the door and shot the 
people lying on the floor, and killed Wm. White, and all his 
family that were there, excepting one boy, who, when he heard 
the guns, leaped out of the window and made his escape. 

This same party went to Robert Campbell's on the Tuscarora 
creek, surprised them in the same way, shot them on the floor 
where they were resting themselves ; one George Dodds being 
there harvesting, had just risen, and gone into the room and lay 
down on the bed, setting his gun beside him. When the Indians 
fired, one of them sprung into the house with his tomahawk in 
his hand, running up to where a man was standing in the cor- 
ner ; Dodds fired at the Indian not six feet from him, the Indian 
gave a halloo and ran out as fast as he could : there being an 
open in the loft above the bed, Dodds sprang up there and 
went out by the chimney, making his escape, and came to 
Shearman's Valley; he came to William Dickson's and told 
what had happened, there being a young man there which 
brought the news to us, who were harvesting at Edward Elliott's 
other intelligence we got in the night; John Graham, John 
Christy, and James Christy, were alarmed in the evening by guns 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 381 

firing at William Anderson's, where the old man was killed with 
nis Bible in his hand; supposed he was about worship ; his son 
also was killed, and a girl that had been brought up from a child 
by the old people ; Graham and the Christys came about mid- 
night; we hearing the Indians had got so far up the Tuscarora 
Valley, and knowing Collins' family and Jances Scott's were 
there about harvest, twelve of us concluded to go to over Big- 
ham's gap and give those word that were there ; when we came 
to Collins' we saw that the Indians had been there, had broke a 
wheel, emptied a bed, and taken flour, of which they made some 
water gruel ; we counted thirteen spoons made of bark ; we fol- 
lowed the tracks down to James Scott's, where we found the 
Indians had killed some fowls ; we pursued on to Graham's, 
there the house was on fire, and burned down to the joists ; we 
divided our men into two parties, six in each, my brother with 
his party came in behind the barn, and myself with the other 
party came down through an oats field ; I was to shoot first, the 
Indians had hung a coat upon a post, on the other side of the 
fire from us, I looked at it, and saw it immovable, and therefore 
walked down to it and found that the Indians had just left it; 
they had killed four hogs and had eaten at pleasure ; our com- 
pany took their tracks, and found that two companies had met 
at Graham's and had gone over the Tuscarora mountain. We 
took the run gap ; the two roads meeting at Nicholson's, they 
were there first, heard us coming and lay in ambush for us ; they 
had the first fire ; being twenty-five in number, and only twelve* 

*The uames of the twelve were William Eobinson, who acted as captain, 
Robert Robinson, the relator of this narrative, Thomas Robinson, being three 
brothers, John Graham, Charles Elliott, William Christy, James Christy, 
David Miller, John Elliott, Edward M^Connel, William Minister, and 
John Nicholson : the persons killed were William Robinson, who was shot in 
the belly with buck shot and got about half a mile from the ground ; John 
Elliot, then a boy about seventeen years of age ; having emptied his gun, he 
was pursued by an Indian with his tomahawk, who was within a few perches 
of him, when Elliot had poured some powder into his gun by random, out of 
his powder horn, and having a bullet in his mouth, put it in the muzzle, but 
had no time to ram it down; he turned and fired at his pursuer, who clapped 
his hand on his stomach and cried, och! then turned and fled. Elliot had ran 
but a few perches farther, when he overtook William Robinson, weltering in 
his blood, in his last agonies; he requested Elliot to carry him off, who ex- 
cused himself, by telling him of his inability to do so, and also of the danger 



382 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

of US ; they killed five, and wounded myself. They then went 
to Alexander Logan's, where they emptied some beds, and passed 
on to George M'Cord's. 

A party of forty men came from Carlisle, in order to bury the 
dead at Juniata, when they saw the dead at Bufifalo creek they 
returned home ; then a party of men came with Captain Dun- 
ning, but before they came to Alexander Logan, his son John, 
Charles Coyle, William Hamilton, with Bartholomew Davis, 
followed the Indians to George M'Cord's, where they were in the 
barn ; Logan, and these with him were all killed, except Davis, 
who made his escape. The Indians then returned to Logan's 
house again, where Captain Dunning and his party came on 

they were in; he said he knew it, but desired him to take his gun with him, 
and, peace or war, if ever he had an opportunity of an Indian, to shoot him 
for his sake. Elliot brought away the gun, and Robinson was not found by the 
Indians- 
Thomas Robinson stood on the ground until the whole of his people were 
fled, nor did the Indians offer to pursue, until the last man left the field; 
Thomas having fired and charged a second time, the Indians were prepared 
for him, and when he took aim past the tree, a number fired at him at the 
same time; one of his arms was broken, he took his gun in the other and fled, 
going up a hill he came to a high log, and clapped his hand, in which was his 
gun, on the log to assist in leaping over it, while in the attitude of stooping, a 
bullet entered his side, going in a triangular course through his body, he sunk 
down across the log; the Indians sunk the cock of his gun into his brains, and 
mangled him very much. John Graham was seen by David Miller sitting on 
a log, not far from the place of attack, with his hands on his face, and the 
blood running through his fingers. Charles Elliot and Edward M'Connell 
took a circle round where the Indians were lying, and made the best of their 
way to Buffalo Creek, but they were pursued by the Indians, and where they 
crossed the creek there was a high bank, and as they were endeavoring to as- 
cend the bank they were both shot, and fell back into the water. 

Thus ended this unfortunate affair to those engaged, but at the same time it 
appears as if the hand of Providence had been in the whole transaction; for 
there is every reason to believe, that spies had been viewing the place the 
night before, and the Indians were within three-quarters of a mile of the place 
from which the men had started, where there would have been from twenty 
to thirty men, perhaps in the field reaping, and all the guns that could be de- 
pended on were in this small company except one, so that they might have 
become an easy prey, and instead of those five brave men, who lost their lives, 
three times that number might have suffered. The two Christy's were out 
about a week, before they could make their escape; the Indians one night 
passed so nigh to them, that they could have touched them with their guns. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 383 

them and they fired some time at each other; Dunning had one 
man wounded. 

I forgot to give you an account of a murder done at our own 
fort in Shearman's Valley, in July 1756, the Indians waylaid the 
fort in harvest time and kept quiet until the reapers were gone ; 
James Wilson remaining some time behind the rest, and I not 
being gone to my business, which was hunting deer, for the use 
of the company, Wilson standing at the fort gate, I desired lib- 
erty to shoot his gun at a mark, upon which he gave me the gun, 
and I shot ; the Indians on the upper side of the fort, thinking 
they were discovered, rushed on a daughter of Robert Miller, 
and instantly killed her, and shot at John Simmeson ; they then 
made the best of it that they could, and killed the wife of James 
Wilson* and the widow Gibson, and took Hugh Gibson and 
Betsy Henry prisoners ; the reapers, being forty in number, re- 
turned to the fort and the Indians made off. 

Sir, having gone through all I can remember, you will please 
to take out what answers your purpose. 

I shall relate an afiFair told me by James M'Clu^g, a man 
whom I can confide in for truth, it being in his neighborhood. 
An Indian came to a tavern, called for a gill of whiskey, drank 
some out of it; when there came another Indian in, he called 
for a gill also, and set it on the table, without drinking any of it, 
and took out the first Indian, discoursing with him for some 
time; the first Indian then stripped himself naked, and lay 
down on the floor, and stretched himself, the other stood at the 
door, and when he was ready, he stepped forward with his knife 
in his hand, and stabbed the Indian who was lying down, to the 
heart; he received the stab, jumped to his feet, drank both the 
gills of whisky ofi", and dropped down dead ; the white people 
made a prisoner of the other Indian, and sent to the heads of 
the nation ; two of them came and examined the Indian, who 
was prisoner, and told them to let him go, he had done right. 

Sir, yours, &c., 

ROBERT ROBINSON. 

*While the Indian was scalping Mrs. Wilson, the relator shot at and 
wounded him, but he made his escape. 



384 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



THE MURDER OF JACK ARMSTRONG. 



In addition to what is given by Mr. Jones relating to this 
affair, the following will add interest to the history of the trans- 
action. 

The first signer to the deposition as printed was a brother of 
the murdered man, and resided on the river above Armstrong's 
creek, in now Dauphin county. He addressed a letter to Allum- 
mapees, king of the Delawares, then at Shamokin, touching the 
death of his brother and some threats made by some Delaware 
Indians upon his life : 

" Paxtang, ye 25th April, 174-4-- 

"To Allumoppies, King of the Delawares: Great Sir, as a 
parcel of our men have murdered my brother and two of his 
men, I wrote you, knowing you to be a king of justice, that you 
will send us in all the murderers and the men that were with 
them. As I looked for the corpse of my murdered brother ; 
for that reason your men threaten my life, and I cannot live in 
my house. Now, as we have no inclination or mind to go to 
war with you, our friends, as a friend I desire that you will keep 
your men from doing me harm, and also to send the murderers 
and their companions. 

'•I expect an answer; and am your much hurt friend and 
brother, 

" Alexander Armstrong." 

The atrocity of this murder was so aggravating that a Pro- 
vincial Council was held, and it was resolved that Conrad Weiser, 
the Provincial Interpreter and Indian agent, should be sent to 
Shamokin to make demands in the name of the Governor for 
some others concerned in the murder. The following extracts 
give a detailed account of all the circumstances : 

"At a council held April 25, 1744, The Governor, George 
Thomas, laid before the Board a letter dated April 22, 1744, from 
Mr. Cookson, at Lancaster, purporting that John Armstrong, an 
Indian trader, with his two servants, Woodworth Arnold and 
James Smith, had been murdered at Juniata by three Delaware 
Indians, and that John Musemeelin and Johnson, of Neshalleeny, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 385 

two of the Indians concerned in the murder, had been seized by 
the order of Shickcalamy and the other Indian chiefs at Sha- 
mokin and sent under a guard of Indians to be delivered up to 
justice; that one was actually delivered up in jail at Lancaster, 
but the other had made his escape from the persons to whose 
care he was committed. 

"His honor then sent to the Chief Justice to consult him 
about the steps proper to be taken to bring the Indian to his 
trial, but as he was absent at a Court of Oyer and Terminer in 
Bucks county, it was the opinion of the Board that the Indian, 
Musemeelin, should be immediately removed to Philadelphia 
jail, and that Conrad Weiser should be immediately dispatched 
to the chiefs of the Delaware Indians at Shamokin to make a 
peremptory demand in his honor's name of the other murderers 
concerned, and that Shickcalamy and the other Indians there do 
order immediate search to be made for the goods of which the 
deceased was robbed, in order to there being put into the hands 
of his brother for the satisfaction of his creditors or the support 
of his family. And at the same time to inform them that the 
chiefs of the Indians which shall meet at Lancaster on the treaty 
with our neighboring governments will be desired to depute 
some of their number to be present at the trial and at the execu- 
tion of such as shall be found guilty." 

Conrad Weiser was accordingly sent to Shamokin. He writes 
in his journal, Shamokin May 2, 1744 : 

" This day I delivered the Governor's message to Allumoppies 
the Delaware chief, and the rest of the Delaware Indians in the 
presence of Shickalamy and a few more of the Six Nations. 
The purport of which was, that I was sent express by the Gov- 
ernor and Council to demand those that had been concerned 
with Musemeelin in murdering John Armstrong, Woodworth 
Arnold, and James Smith ; that their bodies might be searched 
for, and decently buried ; that the goods be likewise found and 
restored without fraud. It was delivered them by me in the 
Mohawk language, and interpreted into Delaware by Andrew, 
Madame Montour's son." 

In the afternoon Allummappees, in the presence of the afore- 
said Indians, made the following answers : 

" Brother, the Governor : It is true that we, the Delaware In- 
25 



386 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

dians, by the investigation of the evil spirit, have murdered John 
Armstrong and his men; we have transgressed, and we are 
ashamed to look up. We have taken the murderer and deliv- 
ered him to the relations of the deceased, to be dealt with ac- 
cording to his works. 

" Brother, the Governor : Your demand for the guard is very 
just ; we have gathered some of them ; we will do the utmost of 
what we can to find them all. We do not doubt but we can 
find out the most part, and whatever is wanting, we will make up 
with skins, which is what the guard are sent for to the woods. 

" Brother, the Governor : The dead bodies are buried. It is 
certain that John Armstrong was buried by the murderer, and 
the other two by those that searched for them. Our hearts are 
in mourning, and we are in a dismal condition, and cannot say 
anything at present." 

From this time on, for a period of ten years, we hear of no 
Indian outrages. The Indian referred to was not, as should 
have been done, tried and executed. The murder of Armstrong 
was an atrocious one, and the offender should have been 
promptly dealt with. Like escaped murderers in these days, he 
was lionized by "certain parties," and subsequently returned to 
his wigwam, from which in after years he emanated when some 
scalping party or bloody fray was inaugurated. 



ARMSTRONG'S RESTING PLACE. 



[The following interesting particulars relating to the remains 
of the murdered Jack Armstrong are from an account publfshed 
in the Local News of Huntingdon, in February, 1889 :] 

For about twenty-five years, it is said, a peculiar light has 
been seen near the top of Rocky Ridge, at Bridgeport, a short 
distance west of Mapleton, which made its appearance more 
noticeably in the month of January of each year. Those who 
have seen the light thought nothing of it except that it was a 
strange place for a light to appear, but never thought it worth 
while to investigate the cause. It was left for a party of three 
gentlemen, A. K. Skipper, Joseph Grove, and Thos. M. Logan, 
all good and trustworthy citizens of Mapleton, to fit out an ex- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 387 

pedition in the latter part of last month to visit the spot where 
the light made its appearance, and inquire into the cause. The 
three adventurous explorers left Mapleton in the evening, and 
when nearing the spot they were astonished to see three lights, 
which had the appearance of rockets. Each one would pop up 
from the ground and remain for a few minutes about three feet 
above the surface, and then disappear in succession. These 
lights were on a line and seemed to point to a larger, brighter 
light like that from a lantern, which swayed to and fro over a 
crevice in the rock. The party were satisfied that it meant some- 
thing, they knew not what, and as the place where the light was 
could be reached better in the day time and when there would 
be no snow and ice on the rocks, they concluded to visit the spot 
again, which they did a few days afterwards. 

Supposing that there might be something buried beneath the 
surface where the mysterious light made its appearance, they 
provided themselves with picks and shovels, and began to dig. 
After digging into the ground to the depth of six feet they came 
upon a pile of loose stones, which covered two large flat stones 
that formed a lid, upon lifting which they discovered what 
seemed to be the remains of a human body in a hole about three 
feet long. The remains were decomposed to a blackened powder, 
and the bones when exposed to the air crumbled into dust. The 
explorers made a thorough examination, and are of the opinion 
that some one had been murdered near that place many years 
ago, and the body had been secreted in this secluded spot, the 
only thing to mark it being the singular light, which had disap- 
peared since the discovery was made. What caused the light is 
as much a mystery as ever. Can it be explained upon any 
scientific, psychological, or mythological theory ? 

It is now conceded by many that there were none other than 
the remains of the notorious Jack Armstrong, an individual who 
resided near what is known as Jack's Spring, so named after 
him, on Jack's Mountain, a short distance from Mount Union. 
He was an Indian trader, and he and his two companions, James 
Smith and Woodward Arnold, were murdered by a Delaware 
Indian named Musemeelin, in the narrows, about the middle of 
February, 1744, just one hundred and forty-five years ago. 

According to John Harris, the narrows took their name fro m 
Jack Armstrong. He mentions them as " Jack Armstrong's 



388 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Narrows, so called from his being there murdered" Harris' 
memorandum serves, too, to locate the scene of the massacre of 
Armstrong and his party. He fixes it at eight miles from Augh- 
wick and ten miles from ; Standing Stone, (Huntingdon,) which 
is about the spot where the body was recently found. 



JACK'S NARROWS." 



["Jack's Narrows" is the name of a remarkable glen in Jack's 
Mountain, over two miles long, near Mount Union. The " Blue 
Juniata" flows the whole length of this wild and romantic gap, 
the ruins of the old Pittsburgh turnpike extend through it, the 
almost forsaken Pennsylvania canal traverses it, also the Penn- 
sylvania railroad, many telegraph lines, and telephone lines. 
The narrows took their name from Captain Jack Armstrong, an 
early pioneer and Indian trader, who frequented this mountain- 
ous district in the years from about 1730 to 1744, and who was 
murdered by the Indians and buried on the river shore in the 
vicinity of this famous gateway. The recent discovery of the 
bones of the veritable Jack Armstrong we believe to be a re- 
markable confirmation of history and tradition. In addition to 
what has been said of " Jack's Narrows," another historical fact 
well known and well worthy of preservation, was the establish- 
ing of '' Drake's Ferry " by Samuel Drake, Sen., just one hundred 
years ago this year of 1889. — Drake's Ferry for fully fifty years 
was the great crossing place over the Juniata for nearly all the 
trade and travel. It served its enterprising originator and the 
public well in its busy days, but now only a few old landmarks 
remain to show the crossing of this once famous Drake's Ferry.] 

All hail!*thou deep and mighty gorge, 

That mak'st for man the way; 
Thou wond'rous work of nature's hand, 

On old creation's day ; 
With awe I view thy rugged slopes, 

And mark thy tow'ring heights, 
Where mountain grandeur clothes each view 

With wild and lonely sights. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 389 

And proud thou art that at thy feet 

As peaceful measures glide, 
The Juniata's limpid waves 

Thy rocky steeps divide ; 
And mirror from their placid depths 

Thy pines and oaks so old, 
Whose mossy trunks and cone-clad boughs 

Heed not the heat nor cold. 

Upon the gray and hoary cliffs 

That crown thy winding way, 
That stand like castles, old and grim, 

Untouched by rude decay. 
The eagles rear their helpless young 

From all their foes secure, 
And teach their timid wings to range 

To ether clear and pure. 

When vernal skies dispel the chill 

That winter winds have brought, 
And heal the wounds with piteous hands 

Unfeeling frost hath wrought. 
Then woodland beauty hastens forth 

Thy bleak defiles to hide. 
And leaflets spring from tree and shrub, 

And fiow'rs on every side. 

If summer suns, with melting ray, 

Make hills and valleys glow. 
And fling their beaming radiance down 

Alike on friend and foe ; 
With gentle breezes thou art fanned. 

With balmy zephyrs blest. 
Refreshing to the languid ones. 

And to the weary rest. 

So, too, when autumn's mellow days 

Begin their busy hours, 
And hang their gorgeous drapings wide 

O'er all thy sylvan bowers, 



390 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Then many a low and ladened bough 

And many a stately tree, 
With gen'rous yield their fruits bestow 

A bounty rich and free. 

But when the storms of winter come 

Thy solitudes to claim, 
Old Boreas rides in wrathful mood 

O'er all thy bleak domain; 
He fiercely binds thy far-famed stream, 

He madly seals it fast, 
And sweeps athwart thy dark ravines 

In many a roaring blast. 

An hundred years great change hath brought 

To thy primeval state. 
And in thy future's hidden years 

Still greater wonders wait; 
Oh, glorious gateway for the world, 

So kind to coming life. 
Bring not the woes of Glenco's vale, 

Nor old Thermopylae's strife. 

Loncf ere Magellan built for fame 

By sailing round the earth, 
In years unknown to history's page — 

Before Columbia's birth, 
The tribal children here did dwell 

In freedom's happy dream. 
And sought their food among thy glens, 

And from thy fruitful stream. 

But they have left thy wooded wastes. 

And sought an unknown strand ; 
Their fires are out, their wigwams gone, 

To rise in spirit-land ; 
They tread no more thy mazy paths, 

Nor cross thy rocky bounds. 
But tread in blissful ecstacies 

Their happy hunting grounds. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 391 

And then a race superior came 

To wake thy sleeping scenes, 
To hew a passage through thy length 

And bridge thy dark ravines ; 
Their beasts of burden came and went 

Their wide and beaten way, 
While great and lumbering wagons passed 

In haste both night and day. 

They smoothed still more their great highway 

With most untiring skill, 
And sent the daring stage-coach 

To speed along at will ; 
And when the echoing horn rang out, 

In din both wild and new, 
Thine Alpine peaks and deep retreats 

Soon faded from the view. 

But greater works thou wast to see 

Along thy rocky feet, 
A graceful son thy river gave. 

The stranger's wants to meet. 
Who on his gentle bosom bore 

In craft of wise design, 
The treasures of the field and mill. 

And riches of the mine. 

Anon the packet sped along 

In haughty, boastful pride. 
Her precious load of joyous life 

Rode soft as zephyr's glide ; 
And swiftly by thy wond'ring hills 

She carried man and wealth, 
To distant fields they journeyed all, 

For fortune or for health. 
<• 
Yes, mark the wonders still to rise 

To men's progressive will ; 
The iron way traversed thy length, 

Man's wishes to fulfill ; 
And where thy quiet year's have slept, 



392 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

The thund'ring train now flies, 

And millions of the striving race 

Have swept beneath thy skies. 

Yea, ev'ry land that shares the sun, 

Contributes to thy throng. 
That day and night between thy slopes 

Is swiftly borne along ; 
And treasure, too, from ev'ry clime 

Comes slumbering in the wake, 
And both are grateful for the way 

Thy kindly openings make. 

And stretching all thy dreary length 

The iron nerves are hung. 
That gather thoughts from all the world 

And speak with lightning's tongue ; 
What greater works hath man to boast 

Than these immortal peers — 
The telegraph, the telephone. 

That bless the rolling years. 

And here a century old to- day 

Drake's Ferry lives in name ! 
How bright the story of its years ! 

How far its patrons came ! 
What bustling life, what moving wealth, 

Confided in the skill, 
Of one tradition praises well, 

And loves his memory still ! 

And last, let mem'ry's deep impress 

Record the deeds of yore, 
Of him who sleeps in peaceful rest 

Upon thy river' i shore; 
Friend to friend, a foe to foe, 

To stand he was not slack. 
And thou dost wear this hero's name — 

The name of Captain Jack. 

W. W. Fuller. 



HISTORY OF THE .1 UNI ATA VALLEY. 393 



INDIAN MASSACRE AT SHAVER'S CREEK. 



[The following narrative of the murder of Peter Shaver and 
others at Shaver's Creek in 1755, supplements what Mr. Jones 
has given us concerning the Indian outrages during the French 
and Indian war.] 

In the year 1755, Peter Shaver, John Savage, and two other 
men were killed at the mouth of Shaver's Creek on Juniata by 
the Indians. February, 1756, a party of Indians from Shamokin 
came to Juniata; the first place they came to was Hugh Mitchel- 
tree's, who was gone to Carlisle, and had got a young man of the 
name of Edward Nicholous to stay with his wife until he would 
return. The Indians killed them both. The same party of In- 
dians went up the river where the Lukens' now live; William 
Wilcox at the time lived on the opposite side of the river, whose 
wife and eldest son had come over the river on some business ; 
the Indians came while they were there and killed old Edward 
Nicholous and Thomas and Catharine Nicholous and John 
Wilcox. James Armstrong's wife and two children prisoners. 

An Indian named James Cotties who wanted to be Captain of 
this party, when they did not choose him he would not go with 
them. He and a boy went to Shearman's Creek, and killed 
William Sheridan and his family thirteen in number ; they then 
went down the creek to where three old persons lived, two men 
and a woman of the name of French, which they also killed, of 
which he often boasted afterwards that he and the boy took 
more scalps than the whole party. 

In the year 1757 the same Cotties went to Hunter's fort, seven 
miles from Harris burg, and killed a young man of the name of 
William Martin, under a chestnut tree, gathering chestnuts. 
After the war was over he came to Hunter's fort again and made 
his boast what a good friend he had been to the white people in 
the time of the war. At the same time another Indian who had 
been friendly to the inhabitants the time of the war named Ham- 
bus, said he was a liar, for that he had done all the mischief he 
could, upon which the two Indians began to fight, but the white 



394 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

people parted them. Hambus told him that he had killed Mar- 
tin within sight of the spot where they now stood. The same 
day Cdtties got drunk and fell asleep on a bench ; when Hambus 
saw that he was asleep he struck his tomahawk into his head 
and killed him. 

In September 1763, about one hundred of us went up to take 
the Indian town at the Great Island, and went up to Fort Au- 
gusta where we sent a man forward to see whether Andrew 
Montour was there, but he was not; he asked where he was and 
was told he was gone to the plantation. We had apprehended 
that Montour knew of our coming and had gone to inform the 
Indians at the town called Great Island, or Monsey town, and 
when we got to the fort the officers that lay there wanted to 
persuade us not to go over, as the Monsey Indians were friendly 
to the white people. But as this was contradicted by some, we 
concluded to go. When we had crossed the river we saw Mon- 
tour coming down in a canoe with a hog and some corn which 
he had brought from his plantation. When he came near we 
called to him, upon which he landed and enquired our business, 
which we told him, and asked his advice whether it was proper 
to proceed or not. He said they were bad Indians and that we 
might use them as we pleased. We went that night to Montour's 
plantation, and next morning crossed the Monsey hill, and dis- 
covered fires, where the Indians lay the night before. Here we 
consulted whether to proceed or not; at length William Patter- 
son turned back, and we followed. When arrived at the top of 
the Monsey hill, we met with a party of Indians which we 
engaged; had two men killed and four wounded, two of which 
died that night. We then went and secreted the dead bodies in 
a small stream to prevent their being discovered by the enemy. 
By that time it was night, and we went on about twenty perches, 
where the Indians fired on us from behind the point of a hill. 
About twelve of us ran up the hill when we heard them run- 
ning, but could not see them. We then came back to where 
they had fired on us at first, and found that the rest of our party 
were gone. We heard somebody coming after, stopped to see 
who it was; George Allen and two or three more of our men 
came up to us. We chose Allen to pilot us into the path, which 
he undertook to do ; but after traveling along the side of Monsey 
hill with much difficulty, until midnight, I told him we were 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 395 

going the wrong road ; he told me if I knew the road better to go 
before. We then directed our course southward until near day- 
break, when we came to a path, which Allen informed us led to 
the Great Island and crossed the North branch to Iskepeck falls; 
in this path we traveled until daylight, when we saw a smoke, 
and proceeding ten or twelve perches we saw some Indians sit- 
ting around a fire. I then turned to the right into the woods, 
and some of our men followed me and some went on in the path 
till the Indians saw them and seized their guns ; we then raised 
our guns to fire, but the Indians cried don't shoot, brothers, don't 
shoot ! we answered we will not if you do not; we then went up 
to them and asked where they had been ; they said they had 
been at the Moravian town buying goods ; we told them we had 
an engagement the evening before with some of their people ; 
they said it was impossible, as there were no Indians at the 
Great Island but a few old men and boys, the rest having all 
gone out a hunting; I told them I knew better; that they were 
gone to Tuscarora and Shearman's Valley to kill the white peo- 
ple; that we had been waylaid at Buffalo creek by them and 
had five men killed and one wounded; that James Patterson's 
shot pouch and powder horn had been found near the place, and 
he was a Great Island Indian, and they. must come with us. The 
three Indians began to tremble, and leaving the victuals they 
were preparing, proceeded with us. 

After we had traveled a short distance, I asked George Allen 
what we should do with the prisoners ; he said we would take 
them to the fort and deliver them up to the commander ; I told 
him if we do that perhaps they will let them go, or send them 
to Philadelphia, and where they would be used better than our- 
selves by the Quakers, and you know what a defeat I got a few 
weeks ago at Buffalo creek, where five of my neighbors were 
killed and I had hard running to save my own life ; I have de- 
clared revenge on the first Indian that I saw, and am glad that 
the opportunity now offers; "Why," said Allen, " would you 
kill them yourself, for you can get no person here to help you ;" 
"there is enough,'' said I, "that will help me to kill them." 
"Where will you kill them ?" said Allen ; I told him on the hill 
that is before us, which lies between the two branches of the 
Susquehanna river, near the North branch. When we came to 
the top of the hill the prisoners asked liberty to eat some vict- 



396 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

uals, which we allowed them ; they directed us to where we 
might find it among their baggage; we went and found it, and 
gave it to them. While they were eating we concluded who 
would shoot at them ; there were six of us willing to shoot ; 
tying then to each prisoner, and as soon as they were done eating 
we told them to march on before us, and when they had gone 
about thirty yards, we fired at them and the three fell, but one 
of them named George Allen, after the George Allen that was 
with us, was shot only through the arm, and fell with that arm 
uppermost and bloodied his body, which made us believe that he 
was shot through his body; but after he was scalped, having a 
good pair of leggins on, one of the men had staid behind to take 
them off; before he could get any but one, the Indian started 
up and ran ; the man was surprised at his rising from the dead, 
and before he could get any assistance he had made his escape. 
He afterwards told that, running down the hill he fell asleep, 
that after he recovered he got up to run, but the skin of his face, 
the scalp being off, came down over his eyes so that he could 
not see; he then took off the leggin that was left, and bound it 
around his face, and when he came to a spring he took the cold 
moss of the stones, laid it on his head to keep the hot sun from 
beating in upon his brains, and made out to get to the Great 
Island, when he recovered. He threatened to take revenge on 
George Allen, bis namesake, and James Gallaher, not that they 
were worse than the others, but because they were the only 
persons he was acquainted with ; it, however, so happened that 
he never had them in his power. 



SIMON GIRTY THE OUTLAW. 



Simon Girty, senior, was, as early as 1740, a licensed trader on 
the frontiers of the province of Pennsylvania. About that period 
he located on or near Shearman's Creek, in now Perry county, 
and here his son, Simon Girty, who figures so conspicuously in 
the annals of border life, was born in January, 1744. There 
were three other brothers, Thomas, George, and James. In 1750, 
the father and sundry other " squatters " on Shearman's Creek, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VAIJ.EY. 397 

were dispossessed of their settlements by the sheriff of Cumber- 
land county and his posse, by direction of the Provincial au- 
thorities. For several years previous the Shawanese Indians on 
the Juniata demanded their removal, but warnings were of no 
use, and at last the strong arm of the law was invoked, the set- 
tlers taken into custody, and their cabins burned. 

Girty, with his family, removed at first to the east of the Sus- 
quehanna, near where the town of Halifax is situated, and after- 
wards to the Conococheague settlement, where, it is said, he was 
killed in a drunken bout. In 1756, his widow was killed by 
the savages, and Simon, George, and James were taken captives 
by the Indians. Thomas, the eldest, being absent at his 
maternal uncle's on the Antietam, was the only one who es- 
caped. 

Simon Girty was adopted by the Senecas under the name of 
Katepacomen, became an expert hunter, and in dress, language, 
and habits a thorough Indian. The author of " Crawford's Cam- 
paign " says that " it must be passed to his credit that his early 
training as a savage was compulsory, not voluntary as has gen- 
erally been supposed." George Girty was adopted by the Dela- 
ware?, became a fierce and ferocious savage, while James, taken 
into the Shawanese tribe, became no less infamous as a cruel 
and blood-thirsty raider of the Kentucky border, " sparing not 
even women and children from horrid tortures." 

To return to Simon Girty. His tribe, although having their 
homes in southern New York, roamed the wilderness northwest 
of the Ohio, and when the expedition under Colonel Bouquet, 
at the close of the Pontiac war of 1764, dictated peace to the 
Indian tribes on the Muskingum, one of the hostages given up 
by the Ohio Indians, was the subject of our sketch. Preferring 
the wild life of the savage, Simon Girty escaped and returned to 
his home among the Senecas. One of the conditions of the 
treaty referred to, was the yielding up by the Ohio Indians of 
all their captives, willing or unwilling. This being the case, 
Girty was returned to the settlements, and took up his home 
near Fort Pitt on a little run emptying into the Allegheny and 
now known as "Girty's Run." 

In the controversy with the Virginia authorities, Girty es- 
poused their cause, and he figures quite conspicuously in the 
difficulties of Dr. John Connolly and his party with the govern- 



398 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

ment of Pennsylvania, In the unprovoked war of Lord Dun- 
more, in company with Simon Kenton, he served as hunter and 
scout. He subsequently acted as Indian agent, and became in- 
timately acquainted with Col. William Crawford, at whose cabin, 
on the Youghiogheny, he was a frequent guest, and, it is stated 
by some writers, although without authority, was the suitor for 
the hand of one of his daughters, but rejected. 

At the outset of the Revolution, Simon Girty was a commis- 
sioned officer of militia at Fort Pitt, took the test oath as re- 
quired by the Committee of Safety, but in March, 1778, deserted 
to the enemy in company with the notorious Alexander McKee 
and Matthew Elliott. It is not known what was the real cause 
of the defection of Girty, but it is more than probable that not 
being fully trusted by the authorities, an application for a cap- 
taincy in the Eighth Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line in the 
Continental service having proved unsuccessful, his innate hatred 
of everything Pennsylvanian, led him to add treason and dis- 
loyalty to his long catalogue of misdeeds. 

Well skilled in Indian lore, he had frequently acted as in- 
terpreter at Indian treaties, and was, therefore, known to the 
British officers in command on the Lakes, who were well ac- 
quainted with his courage, shrewdness, and above all, his savage 
ferocity. The deserters were warmly welcomed by the enemy ; 
while at Pittsburgh the little band of ardent patriots were thrown 
into consternation by the sudden and uncalled for treachery. 
The perfidious Delawares on the Muskingum who were vascillat- 
ing in their neutrality, were almost persuaded by Girty to be- 
come hostile to the Colonies, while some of the Shawanese actu- 
ally "took up the hatchet" and began their marauds upon the 
remote frontier settlements. Simon Girty himself now began his 
wild career by sudden forays against the borderers, and in his 
fierceness and cruelty out-did the Indians themselves. Hence 
the sobriquet of " Girty the White Savage." 

Heckewelder, in his most interesting narrative of his mission- 
ary life, does not give a very pleasing picture of Girty. The lat- 
ter had planned the destruction of the Moravians, owing to their 
powerful influence with the Indians and their efibrts to procure 
peace to the frontiers, and in July, 1779, made a futile attempt on 
the life of that "Apostle to the Indians," the Rev. David Zeis- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 399 

berger. He caused, however, the breaking up of the missionary 
establishments on the Muskingum. 

On the 16th of August, 1781, Girty led a strong force of Indians 
against Bryant's Station, five miles from Lexington, Kentucky. 
The Kentuckians, says Butterfield, "made such a gallant resist- 
ance, that the Indians became disheartened and were about 
abandoning the siege when Girty, thinking he might frighten the 
garrison into a surrender, mounted a stump within speaking dis- 
tance and commenced a parley. He told them who he was ; that 
he hourly looked for reinforcements with cannon, and that they 
had better surrender at once; if they did so, no one should be 
hurt; otherwise he feared they would all be killed. The garri- 
son were intimidated ; but one young man, named Reynolds, 
seeing the effect of this harangue, and believing his story, as it 
was, to be false, of his own accord answered him : ' You need not 
be so particular to tell us your name; we know your name, and 
you, too. I've had a villainous, untrustworthy cur-dog this long 
while, named Simon Girty in compliment to you ; he's so like 
you — just as ugly and just as wicked. As to the cannon, let 
them come on; the country's roused, and the scalps of your red 
cut-throats, and your own, too, will be drying on our cabins in 
twenty-four hours.' This spirited reply produced good results. 
Girty in turn was disheartened, and with his Indians soon with- 
drew." 

Passing over further detailed accounts of the numerous mur- 
derous forays against the Americans, we come to that noted 
campaign against the Sandusky Indian towns in 1782, led by 
Col. William Crawford. Girty's brutality reached its climax 
when he viewed with apparent satisfaction the most horrible 
and excruciating tortures which that ill-fated but brave and 
gallant ofiicer was doomed to undergo ; and this episode in his 
career has placed his name among the most infamous, whose 
long catalogue of crime causes a shudder as the details are 
penned, even after the lapse of a century. 

During the next seven years little is recorded of this desper- 
ado, save that he married, the year after Crawford's defeat, Cath- 
erine Malott, a captive among the Shawanese. They had several 
children, and she survived her husband many years, dying at an 
advanced age. 

Notwithstanding Girty's brutality, depravity, and wickedness, 



400 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

he never lost the confidence and esteem of the Indians ; during 
the several campaigns which resulted so disastrously to the 
Americans, the advice of Simon Girty was conclusive. It is 
stated that after St. Clair's defeat " a grand council was held at 
the confluence of the Maumee and the Auglaize by nearly all 
the Northwestern tribes, to take into consideration the situation 
of aflfairs ; and Simon Girty was the only white man permitted 
to be present ;" and as in the subsequent conference of 1793, it 
was determined mainly through the exertions of Girty to con- 
tinue hostilities. 

The same year, when commissioners, on the part of the 
United States, attempted to negotiate with the Confederated 
Nations for an adjustment of our difficulties with the Indians, 
Girty acted as interpreter. His conduct was exceedingly inso- 
lent; and it is related that he was not only false in his duty as 
an interpreter, but that he run a quill or long feather through 
the cartilage of his nose cross-wise, to show his contempt for the 
American gentlemen present. 

At the defeat of Gen. St. Clair, Girty was present on the Brit- 
ish side, and saw and knew Gen. Richard Butler, second in com- 
mand, who lay upon the field writhing from the agony of his 
wounds. The traitor told a savage warrior that the wounded 
man was a high officer, whereupon the Indian buried his toma- 
haw in Gen. Butler's head, whose scalp was immediately torn 
off and whose heart was taken out and divided into as many 
pieces as there were tribes engaged in the battle. 

With the victory of Wayne in 1795, which forever destroyed 
the power of the Indians of the Northwest, and which resulted 
in the famous treaty of Greenville, Girty sold his trading estab- 
lishment, and removed to Canada, where he settled on a farm 
just below Maiden, on the Detroit river, the recipient of a pen- 
sion from the English government. Here he resided until the 
war of 1812, undisturbed, but almost blind and incapacitated for 
active service. After the capture of the British fleet on Lake 
Erie, and the retreat of the British army from the eastern banks 
of the Detroit river, Girty followed, remaining away from his 
home until after the proclamation of peace, when he returned to 
his farm at Maiden, where he died in the autumn of 1818, aged 
over 70 years. 

It is a difiicult matter at this remote day to give a correct 



HISTORY OF THEJ UNIATA VALLEY. 401 

estimate of the character of Simon Girty, yet enough has been said 
to show that he was a heartless villian, and no bravery, courage, 
or seeming compassion for Kenton, or one or two others whose 
lives he interceded for and saved, can compensate for that one 
hellish deed which he could have prevented — the burning of 
Col. Crawford. He seemed to revel in the very excess of malig- 
nity, and above all in his hatred to his countrymen. The recent 
attempt to make a hero of him has proved futile. Without one 
redeeming quality, " all the vices of civilization engrafted upon 
those of a savage state," we have a picture for all time — that of 
Simon Girty. 



MARCUS HULINGS OF DUNCAN'S ISLAND. 



[In chapter three, Mr. Jones refers to a Mr, Hulings who set- 
tled at the mouth of the Juniata. Omitting his account of the 
escape of Mrs. Hulings from the Indians, the following record 
of this early pioneer and his descendants will prove interesting.] 

From data in our possession, we *are able to give the year 
of the location of an early settler at the mouth of the Juniata, 
that of Marcus Hulings, in 1753. Day and Rupp, relying upon 
tradition, gave the time " possibly as early as 1735." It is a 
matter of history that all the settlers on Shearman's Creek and 
the Juniata had been removed by the sheriff Andrew Work's 
posse in 1750, and the houses of the settlers burned ; so that it 
was not for two or three years at least afterwards that the hardy 
frontiersman ventured to build his rude cabin on the forbidden 
land. It is stated by Watson that Marcus Hulings came from 
Marcus Hook on the Delaware. Nevertheless, the Hulings were 
among the earliest settlers on that river, locating there long be- 
fore the Founder came over and constituted the grand old Com- 
monwealth called for him. The name is spelled Uhling, Hew- 
lings, and Hulings, and is Swedish. 

A few years after locating on the Juniata, came Braddock's 

defeat, and all the horrors of an Indian war followed. In the 

spring after, (1756) the savages had reached the Susquehanna ; 

but the few settled frontiersmen were unequal for the conflict, 

26 



402 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

and were obliged to flee. Some lingered too long for the wily- 
red man came down suddenly, and the tomahawk and scalping- 
knife were reeking with the life-blood of the hardy but unfortu- 
nate pioneers. It was at this period that the sturdy backwoods- 
man was obliged to flee from the home he had erected. It was 
not until the fall of Fort Duquesne and the erection of Fort Pitt, 
that Marcus Hulings returned to his farm with his family. A 
year after, however, we find him at the Forks of the Ohio, where 
he took up a quantity of land. In the meantime, encroachments 
were being made upon his lands on the Juniata, and in 1762 we 
have the following letter, protesting against the same : 

" Fort Pitt, May the 7th, 1762. 
" To William Peters, Esq., Secretary to the Propriatorries land 
office in Philadelphia, dx. : 
" The Petitioner hereof humbly showeth his grievance in a 
piece of uncultivated land, laying in Cumberland County, on the 
Northeast side of Juneadey, laying in the verry Forks and point 
between the two rivers, Susquehanah and the Juneadey, a place 
that I Emproved and lived on one Year and a half on the said 
place till the enemeys in the beginning of the last Warrs drove 
me away from it, and I have had no opportunity yet to take out 
a Warrant for it ; my next neighbour wass one Joseph Green- 
wood, who sold his emprovement to Mr. Neaves, a marchant in 
Philadelphia, who took out a warrant for the s'd place and gave 
it into the hands of Collonel John Armstrong, who is Surveyor 
for Cumberland County ; and while I wass absent from those 
parts last Summer, Mr. Armstrong runed out that place Joyn- 
ing me, for Mr. Neaves ; and as my place lays in the verry point 
have encroached too much on me, and Taken away Part of my 
Improvements; the line Desided between me and Joseph Green- 
wood was up to the first small short brook that empyed into 
Susquehanah above the point, and if I should have a strait line 
run'd from the one river to the other with equal front on each 
River from that brook, I shall not have 300 acres in that surway ; 
the land above my house upon Juneadey is much broken and 
stoney. I have made a rough draft of the place and lines, and if 
Your Honour will be pleased to see me righted, the Petitioner 
hereof is in Duty bound ever for you to pray ; from verry hum- 
ble serv't, 

" MaRcus Hulings." 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 403 

With the foregoing was sent the following note to Mr. Peters : 

" May ye 17th, 1762. 

" Sir : I have left orders for Mr. Mathias Holston, living in 
Upper Merrion of Philadelphia County to take out two warrants 
for me, one for the Point between the two Rivers, and one for the 
Improvements I have in the place called the Onnion bottom on 
the south side of Juneadey right aposite to the other, where Hived 
six months before I moved to the other place ; from your hum- 
ble servant, 

Marcus Hulings." 

Directed to " William Peters, Secretary to the Proprietary Land 
Office." 

We suppose Mr. Hulings was " righted," as he desired. 

Becoming discontented with the situation at Pittsburg, Hu- 
lings sold his claim for £200 and returned to his home at the 
mouth of the Juniata, where he made considerable improve- 
ments. He established a ferry, and built, says Watson, a cause- 
way at the upper end of Duncan's Island for pack horses to 
pass. 

Marcus Hulings' homstead is now in the possession of Dr. 
George N. Reutter. He originally owned all the land between 
the Susquehanna and Juniata below New Buffalo, and had also 
a tract of land at the mouth of Shearman's Creek, then in Rye 
township, Cumberland county, but now Penn township, Perry 
county. 

Mr. Hulings died in September, 1788, and is buried in a grave- 
yard near Losh's Run. Mrs. Hulings, whose maiden name has 
not come down to us, was a remarkable woman, and on more 
than one occasion forded the Susquehanna and wended her way 
to the mill at Fort Hunter with a small bag of grain — when, 
waiting till it was ground, she hastened homeward. This, how- 
ever, was only in the first years of their pioneer life, for shortly 
after a grist-mill was erected on Shearman's Creek. She was a 
brave and intrepid pioneer woman, and a noble wife for the 
hardy frontiersman. She died prior to the Revolution, and is 
buried in the same grave-yard with her husband, but their graves 
are unmarked. They had five children, who survived their pa- 
rents : 

i. Marcus, the eldest, born October 22, 1743, possibly never 



404 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

returned with his father from Fort Pitt. He erected a large 
stone tavern and established a ferry on the south side of the 
Monongahela river opposite the foot of Liberty street, Pittsburgh. 
It was afterwards, says Mr. Isaac Craig, for half a century known 
as Jones' ferry house, and as frequently noted in the journals of 
travelers about the commencement of the present century. He 
seems to have been quite prominent on the western frontiers, and 
is frequently made mention of General Richard Butler, one of 
the commissioners appointed to hold treaties with the Northern 
and Western Indians, in his journal of October 1st, 1785, says : 
" I fortunately recommended the employment of one Mr. Hu- 
ling, who I find to be a very useful, active and ingenious man ; 
he goes ahead with a small canoe to search out the channel, 
which we find very crooked." This was, no doubt, Marcus Hu- 
lings. In the journal of General Joseph Buell, the arrival at 
Fort Harmar, of " Uling, a trader on the river," is mentioned 
three times, November 5th and December 3d, 1786, and on the 
4th of January, 1787. For more than ten years subsequent to 
1790, Marcus Hulings was employed by Major Isaac Craig, 
quartermaster at Pittsburgh, in transporting military stores up 
the Allegheny to Fort Franklin and to Presqu' Isle, and down the 
Ohio and Mississippi to the military posts on those streams. 
Major Craig's letter-books and papers contain ample evidence 
that Marcus Hulings was a faithful and reliable man in all his 
undertakings. We have no knowledge as to his subsequent ca- 
reer, although we are informed that he died in Tennessee, No- 
vember 17, 1802. He married December 24, 1764, Massy Dough- 
erty ; and they had issue : 

1. Marcus, b. 1765; d. 1813; unm. 

2. John, b. 1767 ; d. 1800 ; leaving issue. 

3. Michael, b. 1770; d. 1797; unm. 

4. Rebecca, b. 1776. 

5. Samuel, b. 1780 ; d. 1854 ; m., first, Elizabeth Hicks, and 

had five children ; secondly, Isabel Lee, and had six 
children. 

6. Susannah, b. 1782. 

7. Thomas, b. 1784. 

8. James, b. 1787; m. and left seven children; his widow 

was residing in Louisville, Ky., in 1880. 
ii. Mary, born in 1749, married, first, Thomas Simpson; sec- 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 405 

ondly, on June 18, 1780, William Stewart. Mary had four 
children. She died February 22, 1790. Mr. Stewart afterwards 
married Mrs. Martha Espy, widow of James Espy. 

in. Samuel, born in 1751, also located on the Ohio. He 
owned an island in the Allegheny called Hulings', and we pre- 
sume is yet known by that name. Samuel Hulings married and 
left issue. 

iv. James, born in 1753 ; died at his nephew Frederick's plan- 
tation in Louisiana, at the age of 84 years. 

V. Thomas Hulings, youngest son of Marcus Hulings, who suc- 
ceeded to the paternal estate, born March 3, 1755 ; died in Buffalo 
township, Perry county, March, 1808. He was, June 19, 1778, 
made an ensign in the Third Penna. Regt. of the Line ; and 
served with distinction in the Revolutionary army ; he was a 
prominent man in the locality, and served on several important 
State commissions. He was twice married ; first, to Elizabeth, 
daughter of Gen. Frederick Watts, of the Revolution, and Jane 
Murray, his wife, b. July 7, 1749; d. July 15, 1801. They had 
issue. 

1. Rebecca, b. March 25, 1789; m. May 21, 1811, Robert Cal- 

lender Duncan, son of Judge Duncan, of Carlisle, from 
whom Duncan's Island derives the name. She died in 
April, 1850, leaving two children — Dr. Thomas Duncan, 
who died in 1879, without issue ; and Benjamin Styles 
Duncan, who died in 1870, leaving four children, until 
recently residing on Duncan's Island. It may be here 
remarked that Mrs. Duncan in her will says, " of Isle 
Benvenue." 

2. Marcus, b. February 11, 1791; removed to the South 

married, and left issue. 

3. Frederick- Watts, b. March 9, 1792 ; married and settled in 

Tennessee, where he became quite prominent, being at 
one time Speaker of the House of Representatives of 
that State. He was a captain in the Confederate army, 
and while attempting to get on a train of cars during 
the rebellion was severely injured, from the effects of 
which he died at his then residence. New Orleans. He 
left issue. 



406 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

4. David- Watts, h. 1793; married Maria Patton, of Lewis- 

town. He studied law and was admitted to the Dau- 
phin county bar April 21, 1823. He became the pos- 
sessor of the old homestead, but afterwards disposed of 
it and purchased largely near Lewistown. He bought 
Hope Furnace, which he greatly improved. He repre- 
sented Mifflin county in the Legislature. Subsequently 
he removed to Baltimore, Md., where he died, leaving 
children, Thomas, Maria, Ellen, Mary and Lizzie. Thomas 
married a daughter of Gen. Thomas, of Washington, D« 
C. ; was a colonel in the Civil War, and killed in the 
battle of the Wilderness ; and left two children, Eliza- 
beth and Thomas- Marcus. Maria married Lloyd Wil- 
liams, a lawyer of Baltimore. Ellen married Charles 
Dennison, of Wilkes-Barre. Mary married Goodwin Wil- 
liams, of Baltimore, and Elizabeth married Chauncey 
Reynolds, of Wilkes-Barre. 

5. Mary, b. May 8, 1798 ; m. James S. Espy, of Harrisburg, 

and had two children, both of whom are deceased. 
Thomas Hulings married, secondly, Rebecca, daughter of 
Andrew and Rebecca Berryhill of Harrisburg, and had issue : 

6. Eleanor, b. 1803, m. John Keagy of Harrisburg, and had 

issue, Thomas and Rebecca, both residing at Baltimore. 
After Mr. Keagy 's death, she married Dr. Joseph Ard, 
of Lewistown, whom she survived. She died at Balti- 
more in June, 1880. 

7. Elizabeth, b. 1805; m. James Dickson, of Lewistown, and 

had issue, Annie and William; the latter died at Phila- 
delphia in 1875, leaving Annie, who resides at New 
Bloomfield. Mrs. Dickson, the last surviving child of 
Thomas Hulings, died at New Bloomfield on the 25th 
of July, 1881. 

8. Julia, m. William Bringhurst, of Clarksville, Tennessee, 

and had issue, three boys and three girls ; two of the 
former are dead. The remaining children married and 
are residing in Tennessee. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 407 

THE THOMPSONS OF JUNIATA VALLEY. 



[As supplementary to the Patterson record, we have the fol- 
lowing from the same writer, Samuel Evans, Esq. :] 

To Mrs. Charlotte C. Patterson Thompson is clue the credit of 
furnishing the data for this family. Much of it must have been 
tradition, and the early dates are uncertain. John, and his 
brother James Thompson emigrated from the north of Ireland, 
and first located at New London Cross Roads, Chester county, in 
the year 1735, and from thence removed to Hanover township, 
then in Lancaster count}', but now in Dauphin county. Here 
John married his second wife, Miss Slocum. From Hanover 
John removed to Juniata Valley, and settled at a point about 
three miles east of the present village of Thompsontown. This 
land is still owned by some of his descendants. 

James Thompson settled in Cumberland Valley, near Cham- 
bersburg, where some of his descendants reside. 

1. John Thompson married first a Miss Greenlee, a daughter of 
James Greenlee, of Hanover township, and connected with the 
Greenlees of Little Britain township, Lancaster county, and thus 
with the Baldridges and Achisons. Captain Greenlee, the Indian 
fighter of Westmoreland county, Pa., was of this family. By 
this marriage John Thompson had the following-named children : 

2. i. Margaret ; m. Greenleaf. 

3. ii. Sarah; m. John McAlister, Esq., of McAlisterville. 
Hi. Elizabeth; m. Robert McAlister, of McAlisterville. 

4. iv. William; b. 1754; d. January 3, 1813; m. Jane Mitchell, 
of Chestnut Level, Drumore township, Lancaster. In 1759, 
there lived in Drumore township Samuel Mitchell, William 
Mitchell, John Mitchell, and George and David Mitchell, sons of 
John. The latter owned the farm at Chestnut Level. In 1767, 
he devised ten pounds to build a Presbyterian Meeting House 
upon his farm near the old Meeting House. He left a farm in 
Fahn township, York county, to his son 

1. George; who then resided there. 

2. Mary ; m. Robert Tuckey. 

3. Isabel; m. Alexander McLaughlin. 

4. Janet ; m. Thomas Porter. 



408 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

David Mitchell died at Chestnut Level ia 1756, and left the 
following : 

1. Samuel. 

2. Jean. ,. 

3. Abram. 

4. Margaret. 

5. Eleanor. 

6. Sarah. 

7. George. 

8. David. 

The last two received several farms in Drumore t(Twnship. 
William Mitchell was a witness to the will. 

The Mitchells sold their lands in Drumore in 1785, and re- 
moved to Juniata Valley. Mr. Mitchell, civil engineer, and Su- 
perintendent of the Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad soon 
after its construction, came from the Juniata Valley, and was of 
this family. 

V. Robert; m. Sarah Mitchell, sister of Jane. 

(Both these names appear in David Mitchell's list of 1756.) 

vi. Susan; m. Captain David Boal, who resided in Perry 
county, Pa. 

vii. Jane; m. Robert Wiley, of Washington, Pa. 

via. Isaac; b. 1753 ; d. 1823 ; and had 

James; born 1780 ; d. 1878 ; the latter left one son, who now 
lives in Middlesfield, Geauga county, Ohio. 

By John Thompson's second wife, a Miss Slocum, he had : 

ix. John, who removed from Juniata Valley to Butler county, 
Pa. 

By his third wife, Sarah Patterson, (daughter of Captain James 
Patterson :) 

X. Andrew ; m. Jane Stewart. In the year 1876 this family 
removed from Thompsontown to the neighborhood of Chilli- 
cothe, Ohio. 

xi. Peter ; m. Mary Patterson, and resided upon the homestead 
farm of his father. 

xii. Thomas; lived with his brother Peter, and died without 
heirs. 

II. Margaket Thompson, (daughter of John ;) m. Mr. Green- 
leaf. The latter was killed by the Indians, near Sunbury, Pa. 
The children of their family moved to the West. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 409 

III, Sarah Thompson, (John ;) m. William McAlister, Esq., 
and had, (surname McAlister :) 

i. John; d. in 1854 ; m. his cousin, Jane Thompson, and had: 

1. Sarah; m. Mr. Stitzer. 

2. Eliza; m, Mr. Hawn. 

3. Mary ; m. Montgomery Jameson, of McAlisterville. 

4. Lucinda ; m. John Kelley, of Juniata county. 

5. Samuel. 

6. Hutchison; m. Mary Thompson, of Mifflintown. 

[The Hutchison family were probably connected with the 
Thompsons prior to the Revolution. Joseph Hutchison 
was the executor of Thomas Thompson, of Donegal.] 

7. Jane-B. 

ii. Robert; m. a sister of Dr. Crawford, and had Isaac, who m., 
first, his cousin Sarah Thompson, and secondly, Miss Bell, of 
Pittsburg. 

Hi. William ; m. Miss McCuUy, and had Harrison, James, John, 
Sarah, Jane, and Annie. 

iv. Mary; m. Thomas Bell; and had issue, (surname Bell,) 
Thompson, and a daughter who married Archibald M. Marshall. 

IV. William Thompson, (John,) b. 1754; d. February 9, 1813; 
m. Jane Mitchell. They had issue : 

i. John-Goshen; b. December 28, 1780; m. Abigail North, and 
had the following : 

1. Jane; m. William Montgomery. 

2. Rachel; m. William Sterrett. 

3. Martha; m. Robert Jordon, of Newport, Perry county. Pa. 

4. Wilhehnina; m. James Thompson. 

5. William ; m. Margaret Gilfillan, and they had Theophilus 

and Elmira. 

6. John; m. Margaret Wright. 

ii. James; b. 1782; m. Martha P. Allen, daughter of Daniel 
Allen, (a descendant of Admiral Nelson,) April 2, 1810. They 
lived at Mexico, Juniata county, Penna., and had issue: 

1. Charles Allen; b. January 11, 1811; d. October 19, 1854; 
m. Ann Cockrane, and left issue: 

a. Martha; m. Dr. George Rumbaugh, of Iowa. 

b. James-Horace ; m. Annie E. Gilfillan; 2dly, m. Miss 

Cadwalader, of Tyrone, Pa. 
€. Emma; m. Jackson Wright, of Clearfield, Pa. 



410 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

d. Eliza; m. Dr. Mahon, of Newton Hamilton, Pa. 

e. Ada; m. Jeremiah Lyons, Esq., of Mifflintown, Pa. 
/. Anna; m. Jacob Richabaugh, of Mexico, Pa. 

g. W. Porter; m. Sarah Jane Gilfillan, of Mexico, Pa., 
and had Cora and Clare, (twins,) Jerome, Jr., and James. 

2. Lucinda- Mitchell ; b. October 30, 1812; d. February 19th, 

1813. 

3. Allen; d. April 18, 1844; m. Jane McDowell; no issue. 
6. Lewis- Nelson ; b. October 19, 1815; d. January 25, 1816. 

5. Jerome- Nelson ; b. September 27, 1817 ; m. Jane Wright ; no 

issue. 

6. Horace- Nelson ; b. November 3, 1825; d. March 11, 1827. 
Hi. Sarah; b. 1783 ; m. Judge William McAlister, b. 1774 ; d. De- 
cember 21, 1847 ; and left issue, (surname McAlister:) 

1. Jean; b. December 27, 1803; d. July 29, 1880; m. Judge 

David Banks, (d. March 6, 1870, aged 72 years.) They 
lived in Lost Creek Valley, Pa. They had issue, (sur- 
name Banks:) 

a. John ; who resides in Indiana, Pa. 

b. Rev. Stewart; Presbyterian Minister in Michigan. 

c. William; m. Jennie Hamlin; live in Lost Creek Val- 

ley ; and had William-H., James, Andrew, Ella-K. 
Philo, and Jennie. 

2. Hugh-Nelson; b. June 28, 1809; d. May 5, 1873; m. first. 

Miss Orbison, and, secondly, Margaret, daughter of Hugh 
Hamilton, of Harrisburg, Pa. By first wife had, (sur- 
name McAlister:) ^ 
a. Mary; m. Gen. James Addams Beaver, Governor of 
Penna., 1887-91. 

3. Rqhert; b. June 1, 1813; m. Ellen Wilson. He was a 

Brigadier General in the war of the late Rebellion; and 

resides at Belvidere, N. J. They had Henrietta; m. 

Johnson H. Baldwin, and Sarah, m. Wilson Lloyd, of 

Philadelphia. 
The mother of Hugh M. North, Esq., of Columbia, Pa., was 
the daughter of Major Hugh McAlister, who was the brother of 
Judge William McAlister. Hugh Nelson McAlister settled in 
Little Britain township, Lancaster county, Pa., about 1730. 
Thompson McAlister, brother of Hugh N. McAlister, moved to 
Franklin county, Pa. He married a daughter of John Addams, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 411 

Esq., of Middletown, Pa.; and represented Franklin county in 
the State Legislature about the year 1850. He subsequently 
sold his land in Franklin county, and bought large tracts of 
land in Covington, Alleghany county, Va. When the late war 
commenced he raised a regiment in the Confederate service, and 
marched to Mannasses, Va., and participated in a battle at that 
place. His heart did not seem to be in the cause, and he re- 
signed the command and returned to his home;;and thenceforth 
he took no further active part in the Rebellion. He died leav- 
ing two sons and three daughters. His son Addams owns or 
manages the estate, which is very large. James is a lawyer, now 
practising at Warm Springs, in West Virginia. One or two of 
the daughters married physicians. 



FORTS IN THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 



[Numerous references are made in the History of the Juniata 
Valley to the different forts or block-houses erected during the 
French and Indian war for the defence and security of the fron- 
tiersmen. The records which follow are taken from the Provin- 
cial Records and Archives of the State, and are not only of 
interest but possess an importance in studying the history of the 
early settlement of the valley.] 

FORT BIGHAM. 

This block-house was situated on Tuscarora Valley, about 12 
miles from Mifflintown. It was probably erected as early, or 
1749, by an early settler, Samuel Bigham, after whom it 
was called. It was destroyed by the Indians in June, 1756; a 
number were carried off prisoners, and some killed. The house 
of Alexander McAlister was also burned, and a number of cattle 
driven off. The number of savages who did this deed was never 
ascertained. 



412 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

FORT GRANVILLE. 

This fort was erected in Gov. Robert Morris' time, at least as 
early as 1755, and was one '" of a chain of forts " erected on the 
"west side of the Susquehanna, and placed about twenty miles 
from the other forts. It was near Juniata where Kishacoquillas 
falls into it, and called Fort Granville. " It was" 15 miles N. E. 
of Fort Shirley at Augwick. It commands a narrow pass where 
the Juniata falls through the mountains, which is so circum- 
stanced that a few men can maintain it against a much greater 
number, as the rocks are very high on each side not above a gun- 
shot asunder, and thus extended for six miles, and led to a con- 
siderable settlement upon the Juniata near Fort Granville. " It 
was about 15 miles from Pomfret Castle," a company of 75 men 
inclusive of officers in the pay of the province was stationed here 
for the purpose of ranging and scouring the woods each way from 
the several forts, to prevent the Indians from falling on the in- 
habitants. " It was about a mile west of the present Lewistown, 
Mifflin Co., on the north bank of the Juniata. There was a 
spring in the inclosure of the fort which was destroyed in mak- 
ing the canal — no remains at present are to be seen of the fort — 
the land where it was situated is now owned and cultivated by 
James Turner. Granville Gap is about a mile above where the 
fort was — a stream of water falls into the river on the south side 
called Granville run and contains trout. The travel from the 
point where Lewistown is now located was through Granville 
Gap by way of Licking Creek Valley, Tuscarora Valley and 
Shearman's Valley to Carlisle, where the trading from that sec- 
tion was by pack horses." In March 28, 1756, Elisha Salter was 
appointed Commissary Gen. of Musters, and he writes from Car- 
lisle, April 4. " From Fort Granville 31 March, there was a party 
of Indians, 4 in number within one mile of the fort, which fort is 
badly stored with ammunition not having three rounds per man, 
they thought it not prudent to venture after them." " I am very 
sensible great part of the soldiers have left their posts and come 
to the inhabitants, particularly from Fort Granville." "About 10 
o'clock at night a firing was heard at Patterson fort by the sol- 
diers which they supposed to be at Fort Granville or the fort at 
Tuscarora, and imagine it is taken — they imagine the firing was 
cannon or platoons." James Burd in a letter from Carlisle, April 



HISTORY OP THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 413 

19, 1756, says : " Intended to have marched this morning for Fort 
Granville, but the creek is so high that the carriers can't attempt 
to get their horses and loads over — hope to go to-morrow." " I 
am informed they are entirely out of all manner of provisions at 
Fort Granville, which is a very bad situation, as the enemy are 
constantly visiting them — they have wounded two men in sight 
of the fort and one of the men's lives is despaired of, they would 
have carried them off had not Lieut. Ward rushed out of the 
fort and rescued him. Mr. Ward sent a detachment under com- 
mand of Ensign Clark after the enemy but could not come up 
with them." In want of surgeons and medicines, " We shall 
lose half our men with perhaps slight wounds, purely for want 
of assistance, unless the garrisons are reinforced to 150 men each 
and sufficient stores of ammunition and provisions, this part of 
our province will be forced." This took place before long, as 
Col. Clapham writes from Fort Augusta 14 August, to Gov. M. : 
" Last night I rec'd by express the disagreeable news that Fort 
Granville was taken and burned to the ground by a body of 500 
French and Indians ; the whole garrison were killed except one 
person who was much wounded and made his escape ; and am 
well assured that this loss was entirely occasioned by a want of 
ammunition, having reed, a letter 2 or 3 days ago from Col. Jno. 
Armstrong that they had in that fort only one pound of powder 
and 14 lbs. lead. The Gov. in his message to the Assem'y says 
that a body of French and Indns. under a French officer have 
taken and burnt Fort Granville on the Juniata, one of our most 
comfortable forts on the Western frontier, while others of them are 
murdering the inhabitants, and laying waste the country. '' In a 
petition Aug. 21, from Cumberland Co., it is said " the French 
and their Savage allies, took Fort Granville 30th Jul}' last, then 
commanded by the late Lieut. Edward Armstrong and carried 
the greatest part of the Garrison prisoners." * 

Col. Armstrong, 20th Aug. from Carlisle, says '* that the harvest 
season with these two attacks on Fort Granville has left us bare 
of ammunition. It will not be in my power to prevail with 
double the number of men and a double quantity of ammuni- 
tion to keep a fort that would have done it before taking of Fort 
Granville." He learns from " a certain Peter Walker, taken from 
Granville, that of the enemy not less than 120 returned all in 
good health, except one Frenchman, shot through the shoulder 



414 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

by Lieut. Armstrong, a little before his death, as the Frenchman 
was erecting his body out of the hollow to throw pine knots on 
the fire made against the fort." Cap. Jacobs said he could take 
any fort that would take fire, and would make peace with the 
English when they had learned him to make gunpowder — Mc- 
Dowell the Scotch interpreter for the French, said " they had two 
Indians killed in the engagement, but the Captains Armstrong 
and Ward who were sent to examine every thing at Granville 
and send a list of what remained among the ruins assures me 
they found some parts of eight of the enemy burned in two dififer- 
ent places ; the joints of them being scarcely separated and parts of 
their shirt found through which there were bullet holes. Walker 
says the Lieut, behaved with the greatest bravery to the last, 
despising all the terrors and threats of the enemy whereby they 
often urged him to surrender, tho' he had been near two days 
without water, but little ammunition left, the fort on fire and the 
enemy situated within 12 or 14 yards of the fort under the nat- 
ural bank." The inhabitants of York county much alarmed, in 
their petition say, " that all our prospects of safety and protec- 
tion are now vanished by finding one of our best forts upon the 
frontiers burned and destroyed, and the men who bravely de- 
fended it carried into barbarous captivity — Cumberland county is 
mostly evacuated. A year ago there were 3,000 men fit to bear 
arms, livers in that county ; they were certain they did not now 
amount to 100, that there never was a more abundant harvest ; 
that after the burning of Fort Granville by the Indians which 
was done while the country people guarded by detachments of 
the forces were employed in reaping, the farmers abandoned their 
plantations and left what corn was then stacked or in Barns to 
perish on the ground." 



PATTERSON'S FORT. 

In the letter from Edward Shippen, dated Lancaster, April 4 
1756, it is stated that " Patterson's Fort was attacked yesterday 
by a considerable number of Indians on the opposite side of the 
creek, but received no damage, and several shots were heard to- 
wards Mr. Burd's Fort." Extract of a letter from Hermanus 
Alricks, March 31. 

And by a letter from Captain Patterson (who was at Carlisle) 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 415 

to his wife, we are informed that on " Monday, 29th March, about 

5 o'clock, one Hugh Mitcheltree, who was going to fodder his 
cattle, was carried off by the Indians ; about sundown some In- 
dians appeared on the hill opposite to Patterson's Fort and fired 

6 guns, a bullet from one of which struck the guard-house ; about 
10 o'clock of the same night the soldiers heard a firing, which 
they supposed to be at Fort Granville or the Fort at Tuscarora, 
and imagine it is taken. They imagine the firing was cannon or 
platoons." Governor Morris says to the Commissioners, April 8, 
1756, " Mitcheltree, taken last week within sight of Patterson's 
Fort, called to the garrison and told them the Indians were but 
6 in number, and desired to be rescued, but none went; he was 
carried off." See also the following. 



POMFRET CASTLE. ' 

This was one of the chain of forts erected by Governor Morris 
from the Susquehanna to the Delaware. Those on the West 
side to be 20 miles apart, and those on the East 10 miles. It ap- 
pears by Governor Morris's letter to Governor Dinwiddle, Feb- 
ruary 1, 1756, that those on the West side of the Susquehanna 
were "already erected," and therefore probably in the latter part 
of 1755 — he says, " One of them is placed at a river called Matche- 
tongo, about 12 miles from the Susquehanna, which I have called 
* Pomfret Castle.' I have placed a garrison of 75 men, and 
ordered them to range the woods each way." And on the 9th of 
February, to General Shirley, he says, " From Fort Granville to- 
wards the Susquehanna, at the distance of 15 miles, and about 
12 from the river, another fort is erected that commands the 
country, and is intended to prevent the Indians from penetrat- 
ing into the settlements from that quarter — this I have called 
Pomfret Castle." It appears by a letter to Captain Burd, Febru- 
ary 3, 1756, that he and Captain Patterson were- charged with 
building this fort, but that instead of doing it, they had gone to 
the Sugar Cabins and " nothing is yet done." In the meantime 
murders had been committed — and asks him, "As the Indians 
who committed those last murders must have passed near where 
the fort was ordered to be built at Matchetongo, will not a good 
deal of the mischief be imputed to yours and Captain P.'s re- 



416 HISTOKY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

missness." " On the 29th of March Pomfret Castle was fired on 
by a party of Indians, who took one Hugh Mitcheltree prisoner ; 
and they are very scarce of provisions and ammunition. '' H. 
M. was going to fodder his cattle; about sundown some Indians 
appeared on the hill opposite to Patterson's Fort, and fired six 
guns, a bullet from one of which struck the guard-house." It 
would appear by the orders to Lieutenant-Colonel Armstrong^ 
inclosed by Governor Morris, June 14, 1756, that the fort was not 
built, or at least not finished; he says, "You are immediately to 
send Captain George Armstrong to build Pomfret Castle, where 
it was laid out by Major Burd ; as Colonel Clapham's regiment 
is now in that neighborhood, you will direct him to acquaint 
Colonel Clapham of all his motions, and keep a correspondence 
with him, that they may mutually assist each other." 

Patterson's Fort is several times referred to, and there is some 
reason to believe that Pomfret Castle is intended by that name, 
as the affair of Mitcheltree is thus referred to by Governor Mor- 
ris, "Mitcheltree, taken last week within sight of Patterson's 
Fort, called to the garrison and told them the Indians were but 
six in number, and desired to be rescued, but none went — he 
was carried off." 



FORT SHIRLEY, OR AUGHWICK. 

This is one of the forts erected in Governor Morris's time. It 
was about 1755 ; as he enumerates January 29th, 1756, this fort 
among those " already erected," on the west side of Susquehanna 
— "a third at Auckwick, called Fort Shirley." To General Shir- 
ley, Governor Morris writes, February 9th, 1756, "about twenty 
miles northward of Fort Lyttleton at a place called Aughwick, 
another fort is erected something larger than Fort Lyttleton, 
which I have taken the liberty to honour with the name of Fort 
Shirley. This stands near the great path used by the Indians 
and Indian traders to and from the Ohio and consequently the 
easiest way of access for the Indians into the settlements of this 
province." It is fifteen miles north east to Fort Granville. Cap 
tain Mercer was about this time ordered to Fort Shirley, March 
28th, though it appears by a letter from him at Carlisle, April 
19th, he was then there recruiting for his camp at Fort Shirley, 
" with instructions to review and pay ofi" the Garrison at Fort 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 417 

Shirley, which," he says, "arrived in a very lucky time, when 
the greater part of our men were about to abandon the fort for 
want of pay. I am now about filling up my company to sixty 
men." "A Garrison of thirty men are now at Fort Shirley en- 
gaged to remain there till first of May, by which time I am in 
hopes of compleating the company, and shall immediately 
thereupon repair thither and thank the Governor for the ap- 
pointment. E. Salter is instructed to visit the different forts 
from Lyttleton to Pomfret Castle, under escorts to be furnished 
by the Commanders of the several forts ; at Shirley he is to be 
escorted to Pomfret Castle. Col. Armstrong in his account of the 
Kittanning affair says he is informed by some prisoners, that it 
was the intention of some Frenchmen, with a large part of Del- 
aware and French Indians to join Capt. Jacobs at the Kittan- 
ning, " and to set out early the next morning to take Fort Shir- 
ley or as they called it Croghan's fort, and that twenty-four War- 
riors who had lately come to the town were set out before them 
the evening before, for what purpose they did not know, whether 
to prepare meat or spy the fort or to make an attack upon our 
back inhabitants." Capt. Mercer appears to have been wounded 
in the Kittanning action. 

April 9th, 1756. Hance Hamilton says to Capt. Potter giving 
an account of an affair at M'Cord's Fort from Fort Lyttleton. 
" We have sent an express to Fort Shirley for Doctor Mercer, 
(supposing Dr. Jammison is killed), though at the same time he 
requests an express to be immediately sent to Carlisle for Dr. 
Prentice," we imagining that Dr. Mercer cannot leave the fort 
under the circumstances that fort is under." In making ar- 
rangements for the Kittanning expedition under command of 
Col. Armstrong, and several companies under Capts. Hamilton, 
Mercer, Ward, and Potter, it is said " the affair was to be kept as 
secret as possible, and the officers and men to march to Fort 
Shirley, and from thence to set out for the expedition," and "in 
consequence of his orders and agreeable to the plan concerted, 
Col. Armstrong had made the necessary preparation and has 
wrote a letter from Fort Shirley informing that he was on the 
point of setting out." In a letter from Col. Armstrong at Car- 
lisle, he says to Gov. Morris, August 20th, "to-morrow, God will- 
ing, the men march from McDowell's for Fort Shirley, and this 
27 



418 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

afternoon some part of my own Company with the provisions 
here, sets out for Shearman's Valley, there to halt until the resi- 
due comes up. This night I expected to have been at Fort Shir- 
ley, but am much disappointed in getting in the Strays." He is 
doubtful about remaining for some intelligence which he deems 
material, if he does he cannot reach Fort Shirley until Tuesday. 
"The Harvest season with the two attacks on Fort Granville has 
left us so bare of ammunition that I shall be obliged to apply to 
the stores here for some quantity for the expedition. The 
Captains Hamilton and Mercer having broke open the part 
I sent to McDowell's for Fort Shirley and given their re- 
ceipts as for the expedition, though I know it is for the 
particular defence of them two posts, nor will it be in my 
power to prevail with double the number of men and a 
double quantity of ammunition to keep a fort that would 
have done it before the taking of Granville." By a de- 
serter named Walker, it is learned that the French (after Gran- 
ville) designed very soon to attack Fort Shirley with four hun- 
dred men." "As Fort Shirley is not easily defended and their 
water may be taken possession of by the enemy, it running at 
the foot of a high bank eastward of the fort, and no well dug, 
I am of opinion from its remote situation, that it cannot serve 
the Country in the present circumstances, and if attacked, I 
doubt will be taken, if not strongly garrisoned, but (extremities 
excepted) I cannot evacuate this without your honor's orders." 
Gov. Denny informs Council, (October 15th, 1756,) "that he 
found the frontiers in a deplorable condition — Fort Granville 
burnt by the enemy ; Fort Shirley evacuated by his order, and the 
country people dispirited and running into little forts for a pres- 
ent security." 

J. Simpson Africa, Esq., says : Fort Shirley was situated on 
an elevated plot of ground on Fort Run, on the western side of 
the main street of the borough of Shirleysburg, Shirley Town- 
ship, Huntingdon Co., and on the east side of, and about one- 
fourth of a mile distant from Aughwick creek, (in early days 
sometimes spelled Aukwick.) 

A small stream which flows south-west through what is now 
called Germany Valley passes between the spot where the fort 
was located, and the end of Owing's Hill and empties into Augh- 
wick. This stream is called in old land plots Johnson's Run, 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 419 

and now turns Brewster's grist mill, which is situated near where 
the fort stood. Shirlej'sburg is distant from Huntingdon about 
twenty miles and was originally called " Aughwick Old Town." 
" There is not a trace of the fort to be found." 



FORT STANDING STONE. 

" Fort Standing Stone," was erected on the Juniata river, about 
70 perches above the mouth of a creek, which was subsequently 
named after the fort. The ground on which it stood is situated 
in the south-eastern portion of the borough of Huntingdon. 

On the north-western bank of Standing Stone creek, a short 
■ distance above its mouth was an Indian town. The land is now 
cultivated and the stirring of the soil occasionally brings to view 
ancient Indian relics, a number of which are preserved in that 
place. The name " Standing stone," having connected with it, 
so many endearing recollections is as familiar, writes Hon. J. 
Simpson Africa, to our native citizens, as is Huntingdon. Of 
this veneration we have evidence in the names of the creek, 
ridge, mountain, and valley, which are called Standing Stone." 

The Indian town was a place of meeting of the adjacent tribes, 
and they had here erected a tall, slim stone of a peculiar shape and 
formation, this stone was termed the Standing Stone. The first 
white settlement at this place was named after it and called 
Standing Stone. The fort had been erected by the white settlers 
to protect them from the Indians. When it was erected does 
not seem to be exactly known. 

It is noticed in 1754, on page 136 of the Second Volume Penn. 
Archives, as distant from " Jack Armstrong's narrows, eight 
miles and about fourteen feet high and six inches square. The 
tribe regarded this stone with superstitious veneration and a 
tradition is said to have existed among them, that if the stone 
should be taken away, the tribe would be dispersed ; but so long 
as it existed they would prosper. There was a fort built during 
the Revolution, just at the lower end of the main street. 

The Archives furnish the following occurrences during the 
Revolution : 

April 24, 1778. From Carlisle, Lieut. Carothers writes, "This 
moment I received an express from Kishacoquillas for a supply 
of arms, and that Col. McAlevy, of Bedford county, came there 



420 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

express himself, with an account that a body of Tories, near 320 
in and above Standing Stone had collected together and drove a 
number of the inhabitants from Standing Stone town. Imme- 
diately Colonel Buchanan and Col, Brown marched off with a few 
men who could be got equipped ; we are waiting with impatience 
the issue. I have applied to the Board of War for some ammu- 
nition, which I have sent up with the eighteen muskets, the 
property of this state, which, with some arms which Gen. Rober- 
deau took up to those parts lately, will, I expect, be sufficient to 
arm those classes." 

April 23. Gen. Roberdeau writes to J. Carothers from Stand- 
ing Stone a full account of these matters. A report prevailed 
that four persons were killed, one wounded and eight captured 
between the Standing Stone and Col. Cluggage's, which, though 
brought by express, proved to be untrue, yet served to alarm the 
inhabitants "even in the Path valley," owing chiefly to the want 
of arms and ammunition. 

July 16, 1778. Council inform the County Lieutenants "that 
Col. Brodhead's regiment, now on a march to Pittsburgh, is or- 
dered by the Board of War to the Standing Stone, and we have 
ordered 300 militia from Cumberland and 200 from York 
county, to join them." 

August 8th, 1778. Council inform Dr. Shippen that there are 
two bodies in Continental service, which will require medicine. 
One a body consisting of 500 men at Standing Stone on Juniata. 

May 19, 1779. Gen. Potter writes from Penn's Valley, " I 
cannot help being surprised that there has been no militia sent 
to that part of Bedford county that joins us ; neither to Franks- 
town nor Standing Stone, except that small company of Bu- 
chanan's battallion that would not go to Fort Roberdeau." 

May 13, 1782. Bernard Dougherty writes from Standing 
Stone that on the day preceding " a company of Cumberland 
militia consisting of thirty-five men arrived there on their way 
to Frankstown Garrison, where they are to be joined by Capt. 
Boyd's ranging company. The people of this county are mostly 
fled from their habitations." On the 18th, he was at Bedford. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 421 



ANDERSON'S AND OTHER BLOCK-HOUSES. 

The Hon. J. Simpson Africa furnishes the following : 

Anderson's Fort was situated near the junction of Shaver's 
Creek and the Juniata, near where now stands the borough of 
Petersburg, in West Township, six miles above Huntingdon. 
It was erected, I believe, by the white settlers to defend them- 
selves from the incursions of the Indians. My grandmother, an 
early settler about the time of the Revolution, sought protection 
there. The inhabitants of this fort after defending themselves 
for a long time against the attacks of the savages, finding their 
supplies becoming exhausted, fled to Standing Stone Fort. In 
their flight two of the men named Maguire were killed by the 
Indians, and tlieir sister, afterwards Mrs. Dowling, who was 
driving the cows, was chased by them. Springing from ambush, 
the sudden surprise frightened the cows and they started to run. 
The foremost Indian caught her dress and imagined he had 
made sure of a victim, but she simultaneously grasped the tail 
of one of the cows, held on ; her dress tore and she escaped. 
She reached Fort Standing Stone, half dead with fright, still 
holding on to the tail of the cow. 

McAlevy's Fort stood on the ground now occupied by a ham- 
let called McAlevy's Fort, on the bank of Standing Stone Creek, 
about twenty miles above Huntingdon. This was erected for the 
defence of the settlers of that region (now Jackson township, 
Huntingdon county.) 

Not a trace of either of the forts described now remains. 

The Shadow of Death, mentioned by Conrad Weiser, is a Gap 
in the Shade Mountain, now called the Shade Gap, and is in 
the line between Dublin and Cromwell townships, Huntingdon 
county. 

Black Log is near Shade Gap. 

Hart's Log was in Porter township, Huntingdon county. 

The Indian Sleeping Place is at McConnell's Town, five miles 
S. W. of Huntingdon. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



A. 

Aborigines, the, 17. 

Africa, J. Simpson, quoted, 418, 419, 421. 
Alleghenies, railroad across, 333. 
Allummappees, Indian Chief, 128, 384. 
Anderson, Samuel, of Anderson's Fort, 313. 
Anderson, William, massacre of, 71. 

Armstrong, Gen. John, account of Capture of Fort Granville, 
85, 149. 

expedition against Kittanning, 112. 
Armstrong, Jack, murder of, 126, 384. 

James, deposition concerning his brother's murder, 
126. 

Resting Place, 386. 
Ashman, Col. George, 303, 305. 
Assunnepachla, Indian town, 123, 298. 
Aughwick Fort, (see Shirley.) 
Aughwick Valley, 123. 

B. 

Banks, Andrew, notice of, 63. 

quoted, 69. 
Baskins, William, early settler on Juniata, 59. 
" Battle Swamp," 184. 

Beatty, Patrick, first settler at Water Street, 278. 
Bedford, town of, 151. 

Indian massacre near, 157. 
Bell, Edward, quoted, 107, 189, 234, 324. 
Black Boys, Capt. Smith leader of, 151. 
Blair, Capt. Thomas, captures the tories, 236. 
county, named in honor of, 238. 



424 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

"Bloody Run," 153. 

Bouquet, Col. Henry, expedition of, 150, 

Brainerd, Rev. David, visit to Juniata, 52. 

Breckenridge famil}'^, 268. 

Brown, Judge William, reminiscences of Logan, 106. 

Bryson, Judge Samuel, life threatened, 91. 

Buchannan, Arthur, an early settler, 82. 

Buffalo creek, Indian massacre on, 72, 374, 395. 



Campbell, Robert, house attacked by Indians, 71, 370, 380. 

Canal in the Juniata Valley, 334. 

Chillaway, Job, account of, 324. 

Churches in the Valley in 1850, 348. 

Coleman, Thomas, the Indian fighter, 201. 

Conoy Indians, 19. 

Continental Mills in the Valley, 189. 

Cove, the settlers in, 192. 

Croghan, George, notice of, 139. 

Crum, Peter, murdered by Indians, 319. 

Cryder, Michael, runs first ark into Susquehanna, 173. 

Curiosities, natural, in the valley, 346. 

D. 

Dean, Matthew, massacre of family of, 279. 

Delaware Indians, 20. 

Donaldson, Moses, murder of his family, 247. 

Donnelly, Felix, killed by Indians, 171. 

Drake's Ferry, 388. 

Dunkards, settlement of, 192. 

Indian massacre of, 196. 

surprise of the murderers, 203. 

E. 

Eaton, Mrs., and children, murder of, 244. 

Elder, Mrs., capture of, 161. 

Ewing, Elizabeth, abducted by Indians, 316. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 425 

F. 

Forbes, General, expedition of, 148. 

line of march, 360. 

Forts, Indian, Anderson's, 313, 421. 

Bigham, 411. 

Fetter's, 203, 290. 

Granville, 84, 412. 

McAlevy's, 421. 

Patterson's, 357, 414. 

Pomfret Castle, 415. 

Shirley or Aughwick, 145, 416. 

Standing Stone, 419. 
Franks, Stephen, Indian trader, 298. 
Frankstown, Indian name of, 123, 298. 
" Flush Times " in the valley, 334. 
Furnaces in the valley, 339. 

G. 

Girty, Simon, sketch of, 396. 

Grant and Lewis, defeat of, 361. 

Granville, Fort, capture of by French and Indians, 84, 412. 

Great Cove, Indian massacre in, 194. 

Grey, John, wife of, taken captive, 77. 

Guilliford, John, massacre of, 262. 

H. 

Hardy, Hugh, first settler at Licking Creek, 70. 
Half-King, or Tanacharisson, 144. 
Hare, Jacob, a noted tory, 240. 

an " attainted traitor," 246. 
Hart, John, an early German settler, 185. 
"Hart's Sleeping Place," 125, 185. 

Indian encampment near, 306. 
"Hart's Log," 185. 

Hart's Log Settlement, Indian murder in, 247. 
Heroic conduct of two boys, 314. 
Hicks, Gersham, Indian guide, 253. 
Levi, massacre of, 254. 



426 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Hollidaysburg, 287. 
Holliday family, the, 287. 

Lieut. James, killed at Brandywine, 291. 
Adam, active in defending the frontiers, 290. 
William, family of massacred, 293. 
Houston, Mrs., murder of, 258. 
Hulings, Marcus, early settler on Juniata, 59. 
record of family, 401. 
remarkable escape of wife of, 61. 
Huntingdon — see Standing Stone. 
early settlers at, 169. 
when laid out, 174. 
and Broad-Top R. R., 338. 

I. 

Indians of the valley, 17. > 

ceremonies, 25, 54. 
on Duncan's Island, 52. 
marauds in Tuscarora valley, 71. 
paths, 124, 323. 
burial places, 302. 
massacre, the last, 318. 
massacres in 1763, 369. 



Jack, Captain, a noted character, 134. 
Jack's Narrows, 388. 
Jacobs, Captain, noted Indian, 82. 
death of, 121, 377. 
Jones, Uriah James, biog. sketch of, 352. 
Juniata or Duncan's Island, 52. 

Brainerd's visit to, 53. 
Juniata Valley, furnaces in, 339. 

productions of, 342. 

population in 1850, 343. 

K. 

Kishacoquillas Valley, Indian remains in, 22, 102. 
Shawanese chief so named, 102. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 427 

Kittaning Indian town, expedition against, 112, 359. 
killed and wounded at, 120. 

L. 

Lead mines in Sinking Valley, 211. 

Lenni Lenape, 18- 

Licking Creek, early settlers at, 70. 

Logan, the Mingo chief, incidents of, 105, 261, 324. 

his so-called speech, 109. 
Lost Creek Valley, 63. 
Loudenslager, Indian murder of, 240. 
Lowrey's Fort, 279. 
Lowrey, Lazarus, 289, 296. 
Loyalhannon, plan of battle of, 362. 

M. 

Maguire, Jane, heroism of, 171. 

Maguire, Michael, account of the tory expeditions, 235. 

quoted, 297. 
Manitou, Indian belief in, 23. 
McAlevy's Fort, 421. 

McCartney, George, shoots an Indian, 265. 
McClees, James, massacre of, 258. 
McCormick's Fort or block-house, 257. 

Miss, abducted by the Indians, 316. 
Mexico, first settlement at, 64. 
Mifflin county, organization of, 88. 
Mills in the Valley, 189. 
Mingoes, character of, 19. 
Moore Family, the, 263. 
Morrison's Cove, early settlement in, 192. 
Musemeelin, the Indian murderer, 128. 

N. 
Neff 's Mill, Indian marauds at, 195, 199. 

P. 

Path Valley, why thus named, 76. 

PMterson, Captain James, an early settler, 64, 356. 

Pattersons of Juniata, record of, 356. 



428 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 

Patterson, Capt. William, sketch of, 365. 

Galbraith, 369. 
Penn'a Railroad, construction of, 336. 
Phillips, Captain, scout of, murdered, 271. 
Piper, Col. John, account of Indian murders, 271. 

R. 

Rangers in the Valley, 305. 

Raystown Branch, early settlement on, 148. 

first white child born on, 159. 
Revolution, the Juniata Valley in the, 177, 193. 
Indian depredations in, 195. 
tories in, 220, 232. 
Riddle, William, escape of from the Indians, 66, 370. 

son of taken captive, 66. 
Riot at Lewistown, 91. 
Roads over the mountains, 332. 
Roberdeau, Gen. Daniel, sent to inspect the lead mines in the 

valley, 219. 
Robinson, William and Thomas, murder of by Indians, 72, 381» 

Robert, narrative of, 375. 
Roller, Jacob, massacre of, 225. 



Sanders and his family murdered by Indians, 160. 

Scalps, price paid for, 145. 

Scotch-Irish, 37. 

Scotch Valley, early settlement of, 263. 

Settlers, early trials of, 177. 

Shaver's Creek, settlement at, 313. 

Indian massacre at, 393. 
Peter, death of, 313. 
Shawanee-John, notice of, 326. 
Shearman's Valley, Indian murders in, 373. 
Shickalemy, Indian chief, 104. 

account of Jack Armstrong's murder, 128. 
Shingas, Indian chief, description of, 121. 
Skelly, Felix, adventures of, 161. 

Simonton, Captain, dwelling burned by the Indians, 279. 
captivity of son of, 282. 



HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY. 429 

Sinking Valley, 211. 

Indian murders in, 212. 

lead mines in, 211. 

Lead Mining Company, 230. 
Six Nations, 30. 
Smith, James, narrative of, 151. 
Spruce Creek, Indian depredations at, 253. 
Squatters on Indian lands removed, 39. 
Standing Stone, Indian ceremonies at, 25. 

ancient and modern, 167. 

early settlers, 171. 
Sterrett, Ralph, Indian trader, notice of, 80. 
Stone Valley, 257. 
Stump and Ironcutter, murder of Indians by, 367. 



Thompsons of Juniata Valley, 407. 
Tories in the Valley, 220, 232. 
Trespassers on the Juniata, 39. * 

Tuckahoe Valley, Indian murders in, 212, 261. 
Tuscarora Indians, 18. 
Tuscarora Valley, Indian marauds in, 71. 
early settlement of, 76. 

U. 

Ullery, massacre of, 195. 

V. 
Vandevender, Peter, incident of, 244. 

W. 

Warrior's Mark, origin of name, 323. 

Warrior's Ridge, 323. 

Water Street settlement, 278. 

Watts, Frederick, early settler on Juniata, 59. 

Weston, John, leader of the tories, 234. 

White, William, Indian attack upon, 66, 370. 

Woodcock Valley, 268. 

Woods, George, an Indian captive, 77, 308. 



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